The Salvation Army in Newburgh welcomed students to take part in a community cooking program hosted by head chef Willians Cardenas of Handsome Devil BBQ in Poughkeepsie. The six-week long program exposed young students to the world of cooking and helped them create various dishes.

Students enrolled in the cooking program, who were from the ages of 11 to 17, were given aprons, cooking tools and varying ingredients to prepare dishes during the weeks together.

The final cooking class took place on Tuesday, October 24, where students had the opportunity to make a tofu pasta dish inspired by Cardenas’s grandmother’s recipes. Students gathered in the kitchen and watched Cardenas as he prepared various vegetables to be cooked over an open flame, created a pasta sauce, prepared noodles and emphasized the importance of teamwork and cleanliness while in the kitchen.

For Cardenas, already a head chef, he only just started his cooking career three years ago. After previously being in a life-changing car accident, he decided to set himself on a new path in life. He began doing keto, which led him to lose 200 pounds. From there, Cardenas went on to work with meal preparation and took his skills to New York City before eventually making his way to Handsome Devil.

As one who has seen struggle in his life, Cardenas is grateful to have the opportunity to give back to the community through the Salvation Army and to teach the kids who came to his class. “The thing I teach to my kids is no matter what happened in life you gotta keep pushing yourself and always give the hand to people [who] really need,” said Cardenas. “I love what I do. God always opened the door for me.”

Major José Guzmán, who has now taken over as the director of the Salvation Army in the city with his wife Ana, had previously known Cardenas back in Poughkeepsie when he was leading the Salvation Army there and Cardenas was the kitchen manager then.

“We opened this program, just to bring the kids in, give them an opportunity to do something different,” he said. “We have talked before about doing something with the kids in Poughkeepsie. And now that we’re here in Newburgh, he [Cardenas] immediately connected with us.”

For Guzmán, seeing these young people in the kitchen working with Cardenas made him very happy to see them learning skills that they will be able to take home and use in their everyday lives and use to hopefully serve others. “With these young people here, they’re not just learning how to cook, we’re trying to inspire them to serve the community,” he said. “We say, our heart to God, our hand to men.”

While students prepared the ingredients and attentively listened to Cardenas’s instructions, parents were able to stay and observe their children in a positive and safe environment. For parent Shannon Camper, she shared her daughter Nadia who does bake at home, has never worked with an open flame and prepared ingredients with the style of cooking that Cardenas was teaching.

“She’s had some cooking experience, but not in a environment like this with other kids her age. So I’m excited and she is enjoying it. She seems to be having a good time,” said Camper.

Seeing her daughter enjoying herself in the class, Camper said she was very happy for a program like this in the area and hopefully other parents and families will be able to take advantage of it when offered again so their kids can experience and learn from it.

“I’ll definitely let some other moms that I know, that are local in the Town of Newburgh or the city about it and see if there’s opportunity in the future for them to sign their kids up,” she said.

At the end of the evening, each of the students presented their group dishes to a panel of judges that would be grading the presentation, creativity and overall taste of the dish. Each of the judges gave varying scores on the dishes. Later on, Juliana LoBiondo, a friend of Cardenas and supporter of the class, presented a $500 check to the majors to support their efforts.

A final group photograph capped off the six-week long program as the Salvation Army prepares for the upcoming bell-ringing season. Heading into 2024, more and more ideas for classes are being discussed.