Cooking for the Future
The Singita Community Culinary School (SCCS) at Singita Kruger National Park opened its doors in 2007. Today, it offers a rigorous, Singita-crafted professional cookery course that sees young people drawn from local communities graduating as commis chefs of the highest calibre. Singita Lowveld Trust, our conservation partner in South Africa, sponsors 10 students per year and guests generously fund additional scholarships through donations to our SCCS Expansion Fund. Our goal is to double the number of students who graduate from the programme annually.
The SCCS programme serves to fulfil a real need in the community, as well as for the South African hospitality industry as a whole. Graduates emerge with highly sought-after skills and strong employment prospects, while kitchens at Singita lodges and those further afield benefit from a pool of expertly-trained young chefs. Admission into the programme is competitive, and for the aspiring chefs who are accepted, a very bright future awaits.
The SCCS is a significant step towards achieving Singita’s long-term, broad community development goal of assisting the families that live in and around the reserves to thrive – both economically and socially.
The number of graduates who have found new careers as chefs after completing the programme.
95The percentage of graduates who are currently employed. This result would be impressive on its own, but in the context of a province with a youth unemployment rate in excess of 35%, it’s even more significant.