The Food Employee Certification Act applies to the retail, food service, bakery, frozen dessert, and food processing industries, but nonprofit organizations such as churches, day care centers, nursing homes, and civic groups such as scouts and granges are exempt.

However, extension agents throughout the state are encouraging members of these groups to attend food safety courses on a volunteer basis. To bring consistency to these courses, McElroy is working with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to develop a curriculum specifically for volunteer or nonprofit organizations.

Betty Tsai, a participant in Penn State Cooperative Extension’s train-the-trainer program, recently conducted Chinese language food safety certification training for Chinese-American food service personnel in central Pennsylvania.

“In the past, volunteers have taken the ServSafe course, which has been valuable,” she says. “But ServSafe‚ is geared toward professional food service establishments, and there are some significant differences between that sector and these nonprofit groups. For example, civic and church groups don’t have the equipment that restaurants do. If a church is doing a chicken barbecue, where will the food be cooked? Where will cooks and servers wash their hands? Where will the cooked chicken be held? These are the kinds of questions civic groups need to consider.”

The course for volunteers will move from general food safety information, such as sanitizing, hand washing, and proper cooling and cooking temperatures, to checklists for typical nonprofit events such as barbecues and bake sales. The curriculum will be available to anyone interested in learning about food safety.

Linda Younger, executive director of Sunshine Corners, Inc., a day care center in Strasburg, recently completed a ServSafe course. In her case, because the day care center is equipped with a full commercial kitchen, ServSafe was an appropriate curriculum. “We serve lunch and morning and afternoon snacks to the children,” she says. “It’s critical, particularly with children, to make sure you’re serving safe food. We’ve always tried to get things right, but some things you do just because that’s what you grew up with.”

Younger particularly appreciated learning about proper temperatures for food and the importance of ensuring food safety when receiving goods from wholesalers. “We have a very reliable wholesaler and we assume they know what they’re doing, but now we know to double-check rather than just assume
everything is all right.

“I also picked up some bits of information I’d never even thought about,” Younger continues. “Our staff members know how to mix and use our sanitizing solution, but I did not know that there were test strips available that show if the solution is still viable. Each time I came back from a class, I talked with our cook. She was very receptive, and I was so proud of her when I heard her say to one of our staff, ‘You can’t do that because this is what Linda learned in her class.’ Even though this education isn’t required for day care centers, I think it should be. It just makes sense for anyone involved in food preparation.”