Food Handler Certification
One of our goals at NorthStar is to prepare students for successful, recovery-based independent living. Although many students opt to become full-time students at the community college while at NorthStar, others opt for full-time employment, or part-time work paired with college. For students looking for part-time or full-time employment, NorthStar offers a variety of tools to facilitate a productive work experience.
Food service is traditionally the most available employment for our students and often requires little or no previous experience. For this reason, NorthStar has arranged for students to obtain food handler certification cards. Since July 1, 1996, all restaurant employees and other commercial food establishment employees in Oregon must obtain this certification.
The process involves a short classroom session, followed by a test administered by the Deschutes County Environmental Health Division. The test covers procedures for preparing, handling, holding, and storing foods, and is graded on a pass/fail basis. Successful completion of the test earns a food handler certification card that is accepted anywhere in the state of Oregon and is valid for three years.
Students at NorthStar obtain this certification during Phase I (the community-living portion) of the program, so that they are fully equipped to seek employment during Phase II (the independent-living portion) of our program. This is simply one more resource students have in their “toolkit” when they leave NorthStar.
In addition to preparing students for employment in the food services industry, the food handler certification program fosters important life skills. All of our students are expected to participate in cooking meals each week for themselves and their peers. Many of our students arrive with little or no experience working safely and effectively in a kitchen. By facilitating the training to obtain an Oregon food handler card during the first two months of the program, students learn about sanitary food handling and proper storing and serving procedures, and can help promote healthy habits in the kitchen.
