RIIHEA

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.

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.