FareStart prepares low income people for entry-level jobs in the food service industry. Knife skills are a key component of the hands-on training. Photo courtesy of FareStart.

SEATTLE - The bus stops here.

In a region crammed with job-seekers, those who show up for FareStart’s weekly intake are typically the hardest cases; homeless, recovering addicts, ex-cons, you name it.

They’ve come from as far as Snohomish County, some lugging giant backpacks or plastic bags, to the classroom above the nonprofit organization’s 7th and Virginia restaurant.

FareStart will train them for entry-level jobs in the food service industry -- if they can get a spot in the program.

More than twice as many people applied for FareStart in January 2009 as in January 2008. It takes a week or two to come off the waiting list.

A ‘lifestyle makeover’

Before they learn the difference between porcini and shitake, or prepare some of the 1,500 meals FareStart makes each day for Gates Foundation employees, many students may need a place to sleep.

More than a work training program, FareStart is a lifestyle makeover. Caseworkers find participants housing, help them apply for food stamps and supply them with bus tickets, vouchers for haircuts and gift cards to Target for toiletries.

They also give referrals for health services and locations of AA meetings.

At intake, employment specialist Rob Light tells students that they will learn knife skills, the foundation of being a good cook. They’ll also learn life skills like being on time, showing a sense of urgency, asking questions to check for understanding and working as a team, he said.

At the end of the first week, everyone gets a voucher for Payless Shoes so they can get a pair of non-slip kitchen shoes. When they graduate, they’re given a book about food and a set of kitchen knives.

The price tag for getting each person through the program is about $9,000, Light said. FareStart raises this money by running a restaurant and catering business and through individual and corporate donations. You can find more information about its financials here.

Coming clean

One person rocks back and forth in a chair. Another crinkles paper from a pack of Chiclets. Only a few have printed their names on the nametag stickers.

As they fill out application forms, Light tells them to be honest. Prior convictions, drug problems and other history won’t necessarily exclude them.

What Light doesn’t say is that lying might. FareStart conducts a background check and drug screen on each applicant. Once in the program, they must submit to random drug tests.

Anyone who has had so much as a drink in the past month must wait 30 days to start. Everyone is required to abstain from drugs or alcohol for the duration of the training.

Substance abuse and mental health problems are the most common reason people don’t finish the program. Only about 50 percent will graduate. FareStart graduated 100 students last year. This year, the goal is 125.

The screening process isn’t foolproof. Once, a student graduated from the program and got all the way to an interview at Microsoft. But Microsoft’s background check found a conviction that FareStart had missed. It cost her her job, and Light fears it also cost FareStart some credibility with the company.

FareStart helps graduates line up interviews. About 80 to 90 percent of graduates get jobs in the food service industry within 90 days. These days it’s taking longer for them to get hired, said Karla Smith-Jones, FareStart’s marketing communications coordinator.

Some of Seattle’s best known restaurants have employed FareStart graduates, including Canlis, Palisade, Elliott’s Oyster House and 13 Coins.

Attendance at Chef Night, a special monthly meal featuring guest chefs from local restaurants, is down a bit, Smith-Jones said.

FareStart has started to attract more and different applications since the recession. Those who do intake must spend more time screening applicants and making referrals for those whom FareStart can’t help.

After the group meeting, Light calls applicants into an office to talk with them about their background.

An outgoing man in his 30s said he was eager to start. He’d already told his parole office about the program. He’d been staying with relatives.

The next applicant was more soft-spoken. He said he’d been sleeping outside after coming to Seattle from out of state. He was neatly dressed despite having spent the night outside in the rain, but he had the slow, yet skittish composure of someone who’d spent too much time alone.

The third applicant was a woman who said she has housing and a husband with a job. She lost her office job in January and had no luck find another one. It was taking too long to get set up with training through Worksource, the state-run employment center, she said.

She’d heard about FareStart, so she Googled it.

Light listened to her describe her trouble securing job training. He told her that since she didn’t qualify for food stamps and is receiving unemployment, she’s probably not a candidate for the program. Most FareStart participants are homeless or on food stamps or both.

The woman looked distressed. She didn’t want to have to wait until she was homeless to be eligible for training, she said.