From the June 21, 2011 edition

By Paul Grimaldi and Kate Bramson

Journal Staff Writers

PROVIDENCE — A pair of Maryland health-care executives were impressed Monday with efforts to rebuild the city’s old jewelry manufacturing district into a hive of technology company enterprises.

The two officials, Mark L. Wasserman and James L. Hughes, were in Providence to learn about efforts to capitalize on the relocation of Route 195, which is opening up a 35-acre swath of land through the heart of Providence. The pair met first with representatives of the state Economic Development Corporation before embarking on a nearly two-hour walking tour of the Jewelry District with Governor Chafee and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras.

Read the original Providence Journal article in its entirety:

http://www.projo.com/news/content/KNOWLEDGE_TOUR_06-21-11_JLOON60_v20.47719.html

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Mayor Cicilline Partners with Local Colleges to Grow Minority-Owned Businesses & Create Jobs New jobs website unveiled at networking event on Thursday, September 23rd. 

Mayor David N. Cicilline, the Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Rhode Island (AICU) and the Rhode Island Minority Business Compliance Office hosted a minority business enterprise networking event at the Rhode Island Convention Center on Thursday, September 23rd at 10am. The networking event is designed to provide qualified minority businesses with access to potential business opportunities at independent colleges and universities and to facilitate information-sharing and networking.

A new jobs website, www.jobsatricolleges.com, was also unveiled linking jobseekers with potential job opportunities at local colleges and universities. The website simpliflies the job search by providing one-stop shopping for all employment opportunities at local colleges.

By Richard C. Dujardin

Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — It didn’t take long at all for the word to get out.

Five months after closing its doors for want of a new leader, the soup kitchen at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John has reopened, offering up the same kind of full-course meal that had long made it one of the city’s most popular meal sites among the destitute and the hungry.

The food program closed in May when Tom Veronneau, the executive consultant who was the volunteer director, moved on after 10 years of volunteering, and no one could be found at the time to replace him. But now a new cadre of volunteers and organizers has come forward to reopen the meal site. Veronneau, who said he would remain on board as executive director for another month or so, is helping them get started.

“A couple of students from Brown University called me a couple of months ago and said their research showed that there was a clear need for a soup kitchen on Tuesday nights and they wanted to see what they could do,” Veronneau said. “I had to agree that in these troubled times, people need this more than ever.”

Megan Smith, a co-coordinator of the Brown student group Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere and one of the student leaders of the project, said the idea for restarting the soup kitchen grew out of discussions with a group of homeless and formerly homeless individuals calling themselves the Homeless People’s Action Committee. That led to discussions with Veronneau and with students at other college campuses including Providence College, Bryant University and Johnson & Wales.

Under the arrangement, the student groups plan to keep the kitchen running indefinitely, with the homeless group running the show when the students are on vacation.

Veronneau said he, too, plans to stay involved, eight hours every week, at least for the first month and then turn over the reins. He said he will continue to help raise the $20,000 needed annually to finance the project “since I have the contacts.”

As for the quality of the meals, Veronneau said it appears to be getting there. “I’ve asked our former cook, Jim Kinder, to come by and show how he made the meatloaf. It was always one of his most popular dishes.”

Last Tuesday, before the doors opened, more than three dozen adult and student volunteers were preparing for the onslaught in various ways. Brielle Friedman, a Brown freshman from Naples, Fla., said she spent most of the day going around picking up food from area markets and bakeries for the dinner, which included peas, rice, chicken, pastry and salad.

One of the key leaders of the Homeless People’s Action Committee who, like most of the group’s members prefers to remain anonymous, said area churches and soup kitchens have traditionally taken turns to offer a dinner one night a week. The closing of the St. John’s meal site, he said, left a void on Tuesday nights. He said that many homeless simply did without dinner on Tuesday nights, or saved some of the bag lunches they had picked up elsewhere.

“I know people are going to be happy, now,” he said. “Tom’s was the premier soup kitchen in Providence for many years, and we want to keep that tradition.”

Among those helping to fill the plates were Gretchen Sampadian and Jon LaBrecque, both students at Providence College, who found it reminiscent of the community service they used to do in high school. Judy McGill, a non-student volunteer, said she had come to eat many times at the St. John’s meal site. “Now I’m here as a volunteer because I want to give back.”

rdujardi@projo.com

Some cities are worth visiting just for their outstanding restaurants, and Providence, R.I., certainly fits into that category.

For years I used to pass through Providence on Interstate 95, on the way to Boston or Maine, admiring the magnificent dome of the State House building and making a mental note to stop sometime. I realized that Providence had other attractions only when the son of a neighbor told me he was studying to be a chef at Johnson & Wales University’s famed culinary program.

Hmm. Culinary school = great chefs. Great chefs = great restaurants. Eureka! I was on my way.

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Students are demanding fresh, high quality, fast food. Johnson & Wales University is responding.

PROVIDENCE RI – On-campus dining choices are feeling heavy pressure to be more sophisticated and relevant. Discerning students are demanding fresh, high quality food prepared to order.

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The state’s unemployment rate of 7.2 percent – the highest in 14 years – is the second worst rate in the nation Yet many jobs are going unfilled. At the end of 2007, in fact, there…

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THE DEC. 13 SNOWSTORM that left scores of Providence schoolchildren stranded for hours on buses drove home the message that the Ocean State needs a communication system that will get the right information to the right people at the right time. It would be terrific if it were also the right price.

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