LightHouse students learn culinary and hospitality skills in a fully equipped commercial kitchen, doing work that matters from the beginning.
Students prepare daily lunch for our school community, learn professional kitchen practices, earn industry-recognized credentials, and build the skills to move into paid work in food service, hospitality, and events.
Whether a student is discovering that they love to cook or already imagining a future in the industry, there is room to start where they are and go further.
“I didn’t even know I liked cooking until I got to help make lunch here. Now I’m researching recipes and cooking at home, and thinking about it as maybe my future career”.
-Jayden, 2025
Led by Chef Sara Barnes, LightHouse’s Culinary Program gives students hands-on experience in a working commercial kitchen, including:
Cooking and baking
Knife skills and kitchen safety
Nutrition and menu planning
Preparing food at scale
Food safety and sanitation
Food service and hospitality
Students can begin by helping prepare lunch for the school community and build toward deeper training, greater responsibility, and industry-recognized ServSafe certification.
At LightHouse, lunch is more than a meal. Students help prepare food for the whole school, practice teamwork and responsibility in the kitchen, and take pride in serving something they helped create.
Then we sit down together, students and adults, for a shared meal in the Dining Room.
It is one of the daily rhythms of the school: a chance to connect across ages, slow down, and be part of a community that knows one another.
In the kitchen, students build practical skills and confidence. Around the table, relationships grow.
It’s simple. It’s powerful. And it’s also delicious.
The learning does not stop at the kitchen door. Because LightHouse shares a campus with De la Luz, our working performing arts venue, students can move into paid culinary, hospitality, and event-production work serving real audiences and events.
Reach out to learn more: