(By Janice L. Habuda – Buffalo News) Working with the ease and efficiency of movement that comes with experience, Tasha Moore plates and then Grace Simmons serves hot meals, tableside, in the Urban Diner.
Neither works in the food service industry — not yet. And the Urban Diner isn’t your typical restaurant.
Clients of the Erie County Social Services Department, Moore and Simmons “work” three days a week in the Matt Urban Hope Center’s soup kitchen, fulfilling a federal requirement — at least 20 hours a week of community service or furthering their educations — imposed by welfare reform in the mid-1990s.
Pursuing a general equivalency diploma — which many lack — or workplace skills such as computer competency are the education options.
The three components comprise the Safety Net Achievement Program, a federally funded collaborative of the Lt. Col. Matt Urban Human Services Center of WNY, United Way of Buffalo & Erie County, the county Social Services Department and the Buffalo Public Schools that began in May 2008.
