Social Enterprise and Training Center in Albany Celebrates State Grant

"I tried to get half and half the other day.

I had to walk four city blocks, just to get a quart of half and half so I could have coffee.

So to even get food around here is difficult," David Quillinan, executive chef and instructor at Albany's Social Enterprise and Training Center, tells the Albany Times Union.

"To even get food around here is difficult."

That's why Quillinan, who's been in the restaurant business for 34 years, wants to help.

He's teaching a six-month culinary program at SEAT that's getting $100,000 in state funding from Assemblywoman Pat Fahy.

Fahy, a Democrat running for a state Senate seat, says the money will go toward teaching students "some important life skills of staying with it and having that resiliency to bounce back from whatever adversity they may have encountered and give it another go."

Students are already in the middle of a mental health program before the full six-month course starts.

Quillinan says the program teaches students everything they've learned in 34 years in the restaurant business, and he wants to see them succeed.

"When I'm an employer, or I'm an executive chef, hiring a sous chef or another chef

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