GFS Philly Service Award: Culinary Skills for Life

“Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” 

That’s how Director of Dining Services Walter Ellerbe described the GFS Community Engagement Club’s 2025-26 Philly Service Award project. The club took that proverb to heart—substituting fish for chicken and a lake for a kitchen. The goal of this Upper School club’s project was simple, but foundational: moving beyond providing a meal to sharing the skills needed to create one.

Together with Ellerbe and Executive Chef Jerry Weihbrecht, the students in this Upper School club organized two cooking workshops for groups of participants from Whosoever Gospel Mission—a nearby nonprofit organization dedicated to providing essential services and support for men who are experiencing homelessness or are otherwise in need.

For the past three years, the students in the Community Engagement Club have participated in a city-wide service project called the Philly Service Award. The goal of the competition is to improve the lives of those living in the city. The Community Engagement Club members, led by their faculty advisor, Dr. Zarah Adams, had conversations with a few community partners. When talking with Dr. Heather Rice, the Director of the Whosoever Gospel Mission, she shared her dream of providing cooking classes for the men to provide culinary and money management skills, and healthier outcomes for their lives.

The workshops they organized were threefold—they began with a trip to a local grocery store where Ellerbe shared his insider tips on purchasing groceries, saying that “buying cheap and going long,” was the goal. This meant looking for high-value ingredients and having multiple uses in mind for how to use them.

Back on campus, students provided the men with well-equipped “starter kits” full of everything they needed to cook at home: pots, pans, utensils, spices, and more. Then, it was time to get into the kitchen.

Each participant was paired with a student, and each duo was given a whole chicken—a versatile and affordable protein—to prepare. Together, they listened to a hands-on lesson led by Ellerbe and Weihbrecht, about how to transform raw ingredients into a nutritious meal of roasted chicken with rice and biscuits.

Once finished, everyone gathered around a table in the All School Commons Dining Hall to enjoy the fruits of their labor. For the men of Whosoever Gospel Mission, they left with more than just a full stomach; they had new skills, increased confidence, and the physical tools necessary to continue cooking healthy, low-cost meals for themselves.

Watch one of the cooking classes as they shop at Acme and then practice their new skills in the kitchen!