SEMO TO REOPEN KITCHEN FOR MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

Southeast Missouri State University is cooking up practical experience for students in the school's food service and hospitality management program.

The university will reopen Dearmont cafeteria on at least a limited basis this semester so students can get hands-on experience with a commercial kitchen.

The kitchen has been closed since last summer when the university stopped using it as a residence hall.

School officials toured the empty cafeteria with members of the Southeast Missouri chapter of the Missouri Restaurant Association Thursday morning.

The association recently donated $1,000 to the university program for two scholarships and $500 to aid the school in getting the kitchen up and running.

Bob Hoppmann, president of the Missouri Restaurant Association's local chapter, said the equipment appears in good shape.

"There is some stuff in here I would like to have myself," said Hoppmann, who runs the Pasta House restaurant in Cape Girardeau.

Hoppmann said the kitchen will offer students more realistic training than has been provided in the home economics lab on campus.

Diane McKee, director of the university program, said it makes sense to convert Dearmont cafeteria into a teaching kitchen.

McKee said food service is the largest employer nationally next to the federal government.

There are two to three jobs available for every student who graduates from the Southeast program, she said. About a dozen students have graduated from the program since it was implemented five years ago. Currently about 45 students are in the program.

McKee said she hopes at some point to open the cafeteria to the campus community on a limited basis and also provide students in the program with some catering experience.

But she said the Dearmont kitchen won't compete with the school's existing food services and residence hall cafeterias.