Every morning before sunrise, the kitchens at Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) Promise Academy Charter Schools come alive. Stock pots simmer, sheet pans are lined with marinated chicken and vegetables, and the HCZ Food Services Team moves in rhythm — stirring, chopping, and taste testing ingredients.
At the center of the activity is Executive Chef and Food Services Director Charline Calixte, better known as Chef Charline. She cuts through the bustle — calling out timing cues, checking seasoning, and steadying her team. She pauses at the day’s menu, makes a quick adjustment to a sauce, and smiles.
“I want our scholars to walk into a cafeteria that feels like a hug,” she says. “Real food, real hospitality, and made with love.”
At HCZ, we believe that healthy bodies fuel healthy minds. Chef Charline and our Food Services Team take that charge seriously. From braised beef with polenta to Haitian meatballs with whole-wheat spaghetti, they craft fresh, from-scratch meals that celebrate the diverse cultures of our community and empower our scholars to be their best selves — alert, attentive, and ready to thrive.
Keep scrolling to meet the incredible team behind HCZ’s kitchens and discover how you can build your career with us!
96% Made From Scratch, 100% Made with Love
Great school days are fueled by great food. HCZ’s Food Services Team prepares breakfast and lunch each day for more than 3,000 scholars, plus staff and other programs across the Zone. That adds up to millions of meals served across our cradle-to-career pipeline, and 96% of them are made from scratch.
From dicing 300 pounds of vegetables and proteins to hand-mixing sauces, the team cooks with commitment and care. The result: high-quality, culturally rich recipes that provide scholars with both nourishment and new flavors they might not experience anywhere else.
“I come from a Haitian background,” Chef Charline says. “I want our kids to taste flavors from around the world. Foods that make them feel seen.”
From Cajun-style ramen to oxtails and handmade pizza, the meals are fresh, innovative, and designed to make healthy eating a lifelong habit.
“I used to hate broccoli,” laughs Charmie Jean-Baptiste, an HCZ Promise Academy graduate and now Fellow on the organization’s Strategy and Innovation Team. “They made it so good, I actually started eating it. The food here made me feel physically and emotionally good.”
Making Menus, Building Careers
Just as HCZ nurtures scholars from cradle to career, Chef Charline nurtures her staff into better chefs — and even leaders. She got that same mentorship when she joined HCZ as a cooking instructor. Under the guidance of her mentor and former Executive Chef, Andrew Benson, she advanced from Cook to Kitchen Manager to Assistant Director, and finally Executive Chef and Director.
“People at HCZ saw something in me before I saw it in myself,” she says. “They poured into me, so now I pour into my team — and into the kids we feed every day. That’s my why.”
Other members of the Food Services Team are following a similar journey. Beginning at HCZ as a dishwasher, Jurrell Straughter has since worked his way up to Lead Cook.
“Chef Charline took me under her wing and taught me how to do the work the right way,” he says. “The growth has been life-changing.”
Many teammates arrive with passion and purpose, even if they’ve never worked in a professional kitchen.
“You don’t need a culinary degree,” Chef Charline says. “You need love and a willingness to learn. We can teach the craft.”
At HCZ, the kitchen becomes a classroom. Staff learn knife skills, large-batch production, and menu development, along with the soft skills — communication, timing, and grace under pressure — that make hospitality excellent, even in a school cafeteria.
“It’s fast-paced, but it’s fun,” says Lead Food Educator Shyla Alfred. “We keep each other motivated, and we take pride in seeing our hard work come to life on the plate.”
Creating Impact with Every Plate
For HCZ’s Food Services Team, every early-morning prep, new spice blend, and second helping of oxtails points to something bigger: our mission to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and help scholars, families, and communities thrive.
Each meal is an opportunity for Chef Charline and her team to reimagine what school food can be — nourishing scholars, celebrating culture, and proving that excellence can be served daily.
After another lunch service well done, scholars walk out of the cafeteria refueled, smiling, and ready to learn. The Food Services Team exhales, resets, and starts planning for tomorrow’s menu.
“Food is love,” says Chef Charline. “It’s community. It’s culture. It’s connection. And it’s one of the ways we show our scholars that they matter.”