Suburban Chicago SEED program helps people grow with job training for new careers
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Northern Illinois Food Bank not only offers food but also free education and opportunities.
A pilot program has been helping people with job training in the warehouse industry.
Filling bags and filling orders brings Bernita Perkins closer to feeling fulfilled.
"I'm a crybaby. So I'm going to cry from the beginning to the end of it. Yes."
She can't blame any tears today on the onions being bagged. This is all emotion.
"I'm grateful. I'm very grateful," Perkins said.
She's happy to be a student enrolled in a new Workforce Development Program called SEED at the Northern Illinois Food Bank.
"Some of these students may have come from years and families, generations of food insecurity, and they're looking to be the first students," said Sharon McNeil, Director of Community Nutrition at the Northern Illinois Food Bank.
The program trains students in logistics, financial literacy, and warehouse work.
Planting seeds to help them grow in their lives.
"I was stuck before. I was at a dead end," Perkins said. "It was times I would pray, not knowing what my next day was going to look like."
The SEED program is open to people over 25 in Will County who are unemployed or underemployed and facing food insecurity.
A waitlist of 30 people is already to join the next cohort this summer.
Bernita Perkins hasn't had steady work since her son was wounded in a shooting.
"The Victim Impact Program had reached out to me. They gave me a flyer to SEED, and that's how I wound up here," she said.
The past 10 weeks of learning prepare students for the next step.
Graduation Day is right around the corner, and so is opportunity.
"Not just get a job, but a career, a future," Perkins said.
"It's endless what they can do with a job. And it's a starter. So they can take it and go. They can soar from here," McNeil said.
"This is the first time I actually completed something as far as school, job certifications, resumes."
But now, Bernita Perkins knows what growing and feeling fulfilled means.
"It's awesome," she said.