The Problem
People are struggling…some of our neighbours, friends and even family members. People who are full of potential but have limitations due to unfortunate circumstances in their lives. Whether because they are victims of:
- poor decisions
- discrimination
- deteriorating mental health
- a disability
- or a tragedy that has impacted their lives
…whatever the reasons, many otherwise capable people are marginalized.
The dictionary defines the marginalized as people who are labelled outside the norm – weird, scary, hateful or useless – such people are edged out, they are seen as not quite fitting in.
For these people, it’s hard in a competitive labour market to outshine “ideal candidates”…they often:
- don’t perform well at job interviews
- have a history of poor job retention
- have less than stellar resumes
- have struggled in school and dropped out, closing doors to better jobs
More often than not, poverty is the end result.
Our Solution
We, at The Working Class, believe that every individual has the potential to thrive and to prosper.
We also recognize that many individuals in the situations that I just described need help to overcome the disadvantages that plague them.
We intend to disrupt cycles of poverty and diminish disadvantages through an innovative workforce development program while nourishing a community of hardworking labourers.
Workforce Development Program
Our training program will be integrated into our specialized catering service.
This workforce development program will provide person-centred support to every employee that joins our team. Through coaching and mentoring we will help them identify their individual areas of strengths and weaknesses, assisting them to develop a plan for focused self-improvement. We will concentrate on cultivating the executive skills needed to improve productivity, employee engagement, job retention and help these individuals become more competitive in the labour market.
This program will provide them with meaningful paid jobs in our catering service, with supervision and vocational skills training in all aspects of working in a commercial kitchen. It will provide context for the executive function skills training and the opportunity to strengthen these skills daily in the workplace.
Catering Service
Farms in our community of Leamington, Ontario, Canada employ 8,000+ migrant workers at any given time from Latin American, the Caribbean and Asia. These people come from poor nations, work for minimum wage, 12+ hours daily, 6 or 7 days per week to provide their families with a better future. They suffer language barriers, loneliness, and culture shock. Something as basic as food preparation can be challenging for this population as they share kitchen space with a crowd of housemates. For those lacking knowledge, skills and interest in cooking for themselves find the vast majority of prepared food options are limited, costly and not nutritionally balanced.
The Working Class offers meals that are culturally influenced, high in quality, convenient, reliable and nourishing.
We offer these workers a subscription-based meal plan where they can order a minimum of a week’s worth of lunches and/or suppers at a time right off our website and can be accessed from their mobile devices. They order online, pay online and we deliver directly to their workplaces and bunkhouses.
