Food Funds: Scholarships Now Available from the Greater St. Louis Restaurant Association

Area Residents Can Apply for Financial Assistance to Fund Culinary Education

Fascinated with food? Raving about restaurants? You may be the perfect applicant for a scholarship from the Greater St. Louis Restaurant Association.

Scholarships in the amounts of $1,000 and $500 annually are available.  An application for the funds is available online at www.morestaurants.org.

The Greater St. Louis Restaurant Association’s scholarship program provides financial assistance on a merit basis to students seeking a formal food service education in a two- or four-year college in Missouri.  The scholarships are available to any person who is currently enrolled in culinary or hospitality studies, and that can show personal merit, intellectual capacity and a demonstrated interest in a career in the food service field.  

Applicants must maintain full-time student status in good standing and have a minimum grade point average of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale.  Successful applicants also must work at least eight weeks in a full-time food service industry job during the summer preceding the semester for which the award is made.

  

The Greater St. Louis Restaurant Association (GSTLRA) is a chapter of the Missouri Restaurant Association (MRA).  In 2011, MRA awarded $97,500 in scholarships throughout the state.

In related news, the inaugural Greater St. Louis Restaurant Week will be held October 12-21, 2012.  More than a hundred of the region’s finest restaurants will be offering fixed price lunch and dinner menus during the event, giving area residents an opportunity to experience new dining options.  Greater St. Louis Restaurant Week will benefit Operation Food Search’s Operation Backpack program, which provides food for school children who are not getting enough to eat at home on weekends.