Jeremy Cooper lost his custodial job at a Sanford commercial bakery because of illness, then spent three years looking for decent-paying work to support his wife and their five children.

But he had limited skills and limited luck.

“I was applying for any job that would allow me to have some income,” Cooper said.

At a job fair in Orlando, he learned about Second Harvest Food Bank’s Culinary Training Program.

“I could see he wanted the next thing, but didn’t necessarily know how to get there,” said Keonna Yearwood, manager of the nonprofit’s culinary program, which trains about 35 people a year to work in professional kitchens.

Cooper said the program wasn’t easy, but he got through it, graduated and now works as a line cook at a sports bar at Hilton Orlando on International Drive, which touts its “all-American eats” menu that includes burgers, fried chicken and macaroni and cheese.

“It feels so good that you can work with these different types of people every single day just for one goal, to get the service done and make sure people are happy,” Cooper said. “And then you get to go home and come back and do it all again the next day.”

Second Harvest has been offering the 16-week course four times a year since 2013 and will graduate its 500th student this month.

Students who sign up for the free program typically are either unemployed or stuck in low-wage jobs.

“We got some of them that are foster kids. We got some of them that just finished school and don’t know what to do. We got some of them that have a family and live in homeless shelters,” said Israel Santiago, lead chef instructor for the program.

The nonprofit hopes the training will set their graduates on a more successful career path. In addition to kitchen skills, students learn how to make a budget, write a resume and take part in mock job interviews. The average starting salary for a graduate is $35,000.

In 2019, Cooper lost his job when his lymph nodes became chronically inflamed. He went from weighing about 250 pounds down to 147 and was no longer able to work. A series of temporary jobs followed.

Cooper was intrigued by the Second Harvest program — but not immediately convinced it was for him.

“I was kind of skeptical because you don’t get paid and you got to show up every day,” Cooper said.

But he decided to trust Yearwood.

“I told Jeremy, ‘Our job here is to push you as far as you think you can go, and then push you a little bit further’,” Yearwood said.

In addition to offering a path towards financial success, the program aims to teach coping skills and instill confidence in its graduates, Yearwood said.

“We teach them all of that but, at the same time, we put the pressure of the kitchen upon them,” Santiago added.

The training kitchen, located inside the same Orlando building that houses Second Harvest’s foodbank, is designed to mimic a professional kitchen, and it can be a tough environment.

“I learned that being a cook was kind of like being in the military. It’s ‘Yes, chef. No, chef’. Whatever the chef asks you to do, you do it, no questions asked,” Cooper said.

Just a few days into the program, Cooper became so overwhelmed he stepped out of the room. Santiago went after him.

“I told him, ‘Be careful now, because now you’re in a critical moment. Go to the bathroom, breathe, talk to somebody, cry. Do what you got to do. But make sure you come back’,” Santiago said.

Eventually, Cooper found his stride.

“A light just came on, like this is what I’m supposed to do,” Cooper said.

Cooper graduated from the program in May of 2023, on the same day his oldest son graduated high school.

David Scalise, Hilton’s executive chef, said he has been so impressed with Cooper’s work ethic he put him on a management track.

“Jeremy is that special person that has a hunger for knowledge,” Scalise said.

Cooper started last year in the banquet kitchen, where all the food was cooked ahead of time. Since his promotion to the sports bar, he’s had to hold his own with more experienced cooks on the line, where everything is made to order, and, he said, the pressure is much greater.

Cooper’s wife is eight months pregnant with the couple’s sixth child, and Cooper is feeling positive about his family’s future.

He also loves his job.

“I get to cook this and experiment with this and do this right here and feed people. And people give me compliments back on how my food tastes,” Cooper said.