Bon Appetit Management Company Honored for Helping to “Pave a Pathway to Opportunity through Old Skool Café”

Old Skool Cafe founder Theresa Goines (center) with some of the nonprofit supper club’s youth staff

Restaurants and food service companies across America have been hard hit by the pandemic. Somehow, even as she shifted her youth-run, nonprofit supper club Old Skool Café to curbside pickup and takeout, founder Theresa Goines took the time to nominate Bon Appétit Management Company and CEO Fedele Bauccio for the San Francisco Business Times Beyond the Check Award — successfully.

Theresa and Bon Appétit CEO Fedele Bauccio at the 2019 Old Skool gala

The awards, given annually as part of the newspaper’s Corporate Philanthropy Awards & Summit, honor companies that go to great lengths to share time, talent and technology with nonprofit partners in addition to robust financial support. When Fedele was introduced to Theresa, a former probation officer inspired to provide young people surrounded by violence and crime opportunities for entry-level jobs, “I was mesmerized by her passion — how much she worked to support all of these kids,” he told the Business Times (subscription required). “It just broke my heart.”

Fedele was moved to lend expert help for the supper club’s in-progress renovation, experienced staff to help train the nonprofit’s youth to thrive in the restaurant business, externships at Bon Appétit locations, and help opening the Old Skool kiosk at the Chase Center sports and entertainment arena. (Read more about Bon Appétit’s relationship with Old Skool.)

“He’s been a huge help along the way,” Theresa said. “He’s literally made my dream come true.”

Watch Old Skool youth get training from Bon Appétit Executive Pastry Chef Ian Farrell before the 2019 gala: