MHEF History

MHEF's Origins

As a result of that assessment, the RAM Board decided to create a separately incorporated 501 (c)3 education foundation with the goal of increasing the professionalism of the industry's workforce. By creating a foundation dedicated to education, the energy and resources necessary to reach this goal could collected and directed in effective, efficient, and in ways driven by the industry.

In 1994, The Maryland Hospitality Education Foundation was chartered and awarded 501 (c) 3 status. A governance structure was put in place and a mission statement created. The Restaurant Association of Maryland issued a loan of $20,000 to the new foundation.

1995-1996
In its first two years, MHEF's efforts were focused exclusively on delivering food safety manager's certification (ServSafe®) and alcohol awareness certification (Maryland BEST®) courses to industry managers. One major fundraiser, The Service Classic, was conducted to provide needed financial support for course instruction and marketing. MHEF human resources included a board of 12 and one staff person whose responsibilities included Board communication, marketing, teaching and course administration. In 1995, MHEF, along with RAM, became a founding partner of the Maryland Culinary Apprentice Committee, dedicated to supporting college students interested in culinary arts careers. In those first two years, MHEF trained 300 managers in food safety and 130 managers in alcohol awareness and had an annual budget of just over $50,000 in projected (gross) revenue*.

1997
In 1997, MHEF retained its current Executive Vice President and experienced its first major growth and expansion. An aggressive plan was developed to significantly expand the board, staff, visibility, programmatic offerings and administrative capabilities over the next five years. By the end of 1996, MHEF had expanded its Board to 21 members, recruited and trained 12 instructors, partnered with post-secondary educational institutions and corporations to deliver training, and tripled its marketing and fundraising efforts. MHEF awarded $1,000 in scholarships to culinary arts students. These initiatives resulted in a 125% increase in the number of professionals trained to over 1,000 and a 100% increase in gross revenue*.

1998
1998 was a year of tremendous growth and expansion. Corporate sponsorships of new MHEF programs quadrupled. MHEF expanded its staff to two and its educational offerings to include seminars for industry professionals at all levels in areas of human resource management, skills-specific training, certification, and professional development. MHEF led statewide efforts in promoting industry training accomplishments and was awarded Governor's Citations for its work to develop Maryland Food Safety Education Month and Responsible Hospitality Education Week These efforts resulted in a 700% increase in the number of professionals trained to over 8,000.

The Board also voted to expand MHEF's efforts from serving today's industry professionals, to include developing infrastructures to create a larger, better trained workforce of the future. MHEF formed the Independence Initiatives program in partnership with state and local agencies, and community organizations to deliver training to former welfare recipients. MHEF trained and helped 75 former welfare recipients begin hospitality careers.

Additionally, MHEF developed a plan for the launch of the state's hospitality school-to-career program, SPECTRUMS®. In its first year, MHEF was successful in attracting $45,000 in state Career Connections funding to begin SPECTRUMS®. Funds were used to develop new strategic partnerships with state and local departments of education and Workforce Investment Boards; to increase industry awareness of SPECTRUMS®; and to create data collection and communication systems that would assist in providing sustainability for SPECTRUMS®. Through SPECTRUMS®, MHEF educated over 500 culinary students, teachers and guidance counselors in industry practices and standards, skill requirements, and career opportunities. MHEF participated in the Inaugural Reception for Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley by arranging for 80 Baltimore City high school Pro Start®. Hundreds of other high school culinary arts students met and learned from industry leaders and were provided with work-based learning opportunities.

In October of 1998, MHEF officially launched The Maryland Council on Food Safety and the Seal of Commitment Award®. MHEF saw the number of industry professionals it trained rise to over 5,000 and MHEF awarded 75 Seal of Commitment Awards to Maryland foodservice operations.

MHEF awarded $1,000 in scholarships to college hospitality students and repaid part of its initial loan from RAM.

MHEF experienced at growth in gross revenue to over $250,000* and increased its staff to three full time professionals and three (part time) college interns.

1999
1999 was a banner year for MHEF. The Maryland Council on Food Safety continued to expand its service to the industry in providing safe food handling classes, resulting in the training of over 15,000 industry professionals. MHEF presented over 100 Seal of Commitment Awards to Maryland foodservice operations and continued to earn local and national recognition, corporate donations and widespread industry support. MHEF created The Chefs for Food Safety Team whose members are dedicated to increasing respect and visibility for chefs dedicated to food safety, and to increase the knowledge of the dining public in the importance, and practice of safe food handling. Efforts of the Maryland Chefs for Food Safety resulted in educating hundreds of thousands of members of the public in safe food handling practices.

MHEF's Maryland's BEST program experienced a 100% increase in the number of professionals trained, including servers between the ages of 18 and 21. The Maryland's BEST® coursebook was thoroughly updated. As a result of its efforts, MHEF was invited to participate in local and national discussions on responsible hospitality practices.

As a result of program growth, MHEF increased its recruitment and training of instructors yielding a 100% increase in MHEF's instructional capabilities, including its ability to deliver training in several languages.

MHEF's SPECTRUMS® School-to-Career initiative was awarded an additional $35,000 in Career Connections funds to continue programmatic growth and expansion program. MHEF provided over 300 high school students with opportunities to meet and shadow industry leaders through events like Groundhog Job Shadow Day, provided continued training and externship opportunities for high school teachers. In October, MHEF, in partnership with the Maryland State Department of Education, presented the state's first educators summit on hospitality where industry leaders shared their knowledge, suggestions and encouragement to over 120 teachers, curriculum specialists, and administrators. MHEF awarded over $1,000 in scholarships to culinary college students and assisted 50 high school students and five hospitality teachers in obtaining outside scholarships.

MHEF's staff increased to three full-time professionals.

MHEF paid off the original loan from RAM and saw its gross revenue increase to over $425,000.*

2000
2000 was yet another year of tremendous growth. The Maryland Council on Food Safety trained a record 25,000 industry professionals and, as a result of its success, was recognized by the National Restaurant Association and International Association of Environmental Sanitarians as a national model. MHEF was awarded $30,000 from the National Restaurant Association and provided assistance in the development of an implementation kit that is assisting other states to implement similar programs. MHEF was awarded a grant to certify over three hundred foodservice employees of the Maryland State Department of Education in ServSafe® Sanitation.

MHEF was awarded a grant from the Governor's Office on Prevention of Crime and Substance Abuse to develop a Maryland's BEST® pilot program to certify young servers (ages 18-21) in responsible hospitality and alcohol service. The program also prepares them to be mentors to their co-workers, friends and family in the prevention of substance abuse. MHEF developed a marketing plan for significantly increasing the industry's awareness and participation in responsible alcohol service training. This plan included management and server level training as well as community outreach and recognition for operators who committed to full staff training. MHEF recruited additional instructors, developed one-hour seminars for servers and created the Maryland's BEST Employer Award®.

MHEF began its partnership with local American Culinary Federation chapters in delivering training to assist Maryland chefs in receiving ACF credentials. This partnership resulted in the certification of over 25 chefs in Supervisory Skills, ServSafe® and Nutrition and prepared them for Certified Executive Chef and Certified Chef de Cuisine exams. MHEF partnered with the National Restaurant Association's Educational Foundation to provide foodservice managers the ability to prepare and take the exam required to receive the Foodservice Management Professional (FMP) credential.

MHEF's SPECTRUMS® program continued to expand its outreach and partnering with secondary and post-secondary institutions. MHEF was invited to service on dozens of advisory boards for business groups as well as secondary and post-secondary schools statewide. MHEF served on both the Maryland State Department of Education's Tech Prep Work Plan Committee and the Governor's Task Force on Hospitality Workforce Development. MHEF helped develop and deliver of high school foodservice curriculum enhancements including a guest speaker bureau, and teacher in-service training. MHEF was awarded over $100,000 in Career Connections funding as well as funding from the Hospitality Business Alliance, American Express and Phillip Morris to continue the growth of the statewide SPECTRUMS® School-to-Career program.

MHEF held its first Annual Future's Open Golf Tournament fundraiser for SPECTRUMS® which provided over 150 students with opportunities to meet industry leaders and for leaders to learn about SPECTRUMS®.

MHEF awarded its first SUMMIT Award and its first Industry Exemplar, Advocate, Visionary, Champion, Mentor, and Teacher of the Year Awards.

RAM and MHEF moved into the new headquarters and training facility, which provides MHEF with a state-of-the-art facility from which to deliver training to the industry, education community, students, and the dining public.

The MHEF budget grew to over $600,000 in gross revenue* and provided for the planning and development of this website and an additional staff person to address growth of MHEF activities.

2001
Plans for 2001 include the full launch of Phase I of the MHEF website, which will provide the industry and the public with a one-stop total resource center for job applicants, information on industry trends, training, career planning, history and links to hundreds of other valuable sites.

MHEF will also increase its offerings of management, technology, customer service and teacher training programs by partnering with other non-profit organizations, educational institutions, corporations, and governmental agencies.

MHEF will launch distance learning courses and increase its seminars focussed on maximizing technological advancements.

Through its Maryland Council on Food Safety and Maryland Chefs for Food Safety Team will continue to increase its training outreach to include over 150,000 industry professionals, teachers and students, and millions of members of the dining public.

MHEF will use the new training facility to host classes for the dining public featuring industry leaders as instructors.

May 15th will be the Future's Open Golf Classic and will again feature culinary students; their importance and their accomplishments.

On April 30, at RAM Industry Awards Gala MHEF will present its industry awards and provide selected students with the opportunity to participate in the evenings' events.

In September, MHEF will conduct its first Educational Conference, a two-day event featuring numerous seminars for middle and upper-level industry managers.

2004 - 2007

After the first ten years (1994-2004) of growth and program expansion (see below), MHEF re-evaluated the industry’s needs and what MHEF could and should be offering to the industry.  The focus changed from offering numerous different programs, to meeting the needs of the industry as a whole and helping the greatest number people possible with MHEF’s limited resources. 

ServSafe certification training continues to be the driving force of MHEF.  Since 2000 MHEF has had a 200% increase in ServSafe training revenue.  This core program enables MHEF to meet its mission by training nearly 2,000 people each year and helping the industry by offering ServSafe classes throughout the state in order to meet the mandated certification requirements.  As a result of this growth, MHEF hired a second full time instructor in 2006.  MHEF hopes to begin offering online training in the next 3 years as it is working with the state regulators to make this a reality.  This will allow MHEF to train even more people, especially those outside the Baltimore / DC corridor.

The Maryland’s BEST responsible alcohol service program continues to be a strong program that trains almost a 1,000 people a year.  The course was updated in 2005 and plans have begun to offer BEST in an online format.  The comptroller’s office began accepting applications for online training programs in 2007 and MHEF wants to be in the position to take advantage of this change in regulations.

Management training seminars, HACCP writing workshops, Bar Spot Service and Super Service 101 have all been developed and grown since 2004.  These programs help foodservice operators get the most out of their employees and produce a more professional workforce.

MHEF continues to receive an annual grant from the Maryland State Department of Education to train the public school foodservice workers in ServSafe.  Nearly 500 people are ServSafe certified each year through this grant.  In 2005 this grant expanded to include food safety training for child care facility workers.  In 2007 nearly 250 child care workers were trained across the state.

In 2006 MHEF began referring to its school to career program as ProStart®, replacing the name SPECTRUMS.  ProStart is nationally recognized and endorsed by the Maryland State Department of Education.  ProStart also had better name recognition than SPECTRUMS.  In 2004 there were 20 schools in Maryland using ProStart.  In the fall of 2006 there were 53 and 2007 projections show 15-20 more schools implementing the ProStart program.  This means that in the fall of 2007 there will be nearly 4,000 high school students across the state preparing for careers and jobs in the hospitality industry.

The three main goals of ProStart are:

Introduce more people/students to hospitality as a career option, not just a “pass through job”.

Provide students with the training and experience necessary to work in the hospitality industry in a variety of positions.

Prepare students for careers in hospitality management and/or post secondary education.

When MHEF meets these goals there are more trained people in the workforce helping the hospitality industry meet their staffing needs.

In 2005 MHEF launched the Maryland ProStart Student Invitational (MPSI) which is a culinary competition for the high school students in the ProStart program.  MHEF then paid all of the expenses to send the first place team to the National ProStart Student Invitational (NPSI) where the Howard County Applications and Research Laboratory placed 7^th in the nation.  Since the first year, MPSI has grown to include a management competition that includes a management case study and knowledge bowl to go along with the one hour team culinary competition.  In 2007 MHEF had a scholarship pool of $590,000 awarded to the top three teams in both culinary and management.  The team from the Howard County ARL won again in 2007 and went on to nationals to place 5^th in the country for Maryland’s best finish ever.  MHEF continues to pay the expenses to send the first place teams to NPSI.

In 2006 MHEF began offering summer workshops for ProStart teachers to keep them up to date with what was happening in the hospitality industry.  Culinary and management topics were built into the curriculum, along with industry speakers and demonstrations to help these teachers get their students ready to work in the industry.  These three day workshops continue in multiple levels of instruction, from beginner to veteran culinary instructor.

The MHEF scholarship program has really taken shape since 2005.  It was then that the Board of Directors decided to mandate that 10% of the MHEF net income be distributed in scholarships with a $5,000 minimum.  In 2007 the MHEF scholarship committee awarded $15,000 to go along with the $590,000 scholarship pool awarded at MPSI.  MHEF has also partnered with Whole Foods Market to award $10,000 to Montgomery County culinary arts and ProStart students.

The 2007-2008 MHEF budget is just over $900,000 in gross revenue.  There are now 7 full time and one part time employees working for MHEF.  MHEF also has a bank of 30 contract employees to choose from when necessary.

 

* A Note on Gross Revenue. A 501(c3) does not retain significant earnings from gross revenue. Revenue is intended to be commensurate with expenses incurred so any net revenue is put into future programmatic growth. A small percentage may be reserved to cover unexpected expenses. MHEF maintains commitment to upholding standards and best practices identified by American Society of Association Executives in budget development and asset management.