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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
HONORING SUSAN GARCIA TRIESCHMANN FOR HER SERVICE TO THE EVANSTON COMMUNITY
WHEREAS, after a decade of teaching restaurant and life skills to more than 500 young people, Susan Trieschmann, a founder and executive director of Curt's Caf? has announced that she will depart the enterprise later this year. Curt's Caf? founded in 2012 is a workforce training program whose motto is "Dine with a Purpose. Enjoy great food and help build community;" and
WHEREAS, Susan began working in food service at the age of 13. She became the Director of Catering at the legendary Pump Room before becoming an original owner and 25-year partner of Food for Thought Enterprise. Under her leadership the company grew from a small catering business into a food service industry specializing in upscale catering and caf? food service management; and
WHEREAS, Susan got the idea to start Curt's when she enrolled in a social justice course while working on a business degree. The course introduced her to the concept of restorative justice, which seeks to restore wholeness to victims and offenders. As her final exam, the instructor sent her to the prison to do youth circles. It was a life-changing event for her, watching young men from different gangs speak from hearts about fear, about family. Subjects that would never be broached in prison. She learned from her work with those and other young men about the need for jobs and a safe, accepting environment for 15- to 24-year old males coming out of prison; and
WHEREAS, building on that knowledge and her background in the culinary arts and industry, Susan developed a business plan to raise funding for a program that would provide life and work skills for those young men. Though the plan initially found little support, she and her partner Lori Dube forged ahead. Curt's, Cultivating Unique Restaurant Training, came into being for the express purpose of working with justice-involved youth. Of the more than 500 young people w...
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