By John Griffin, Express-News Dining Editor

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, the old saying goes; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. The folks who run the San Antonio Food Bank's Community Kitchen are hoping that the people they're teaching will feed others as well.

(Photos by Bob Owen/Express-News) Mario Pérez, executive chef, explains mixing techniques to student Elizabeth Gilder.

The students in this program are homeless, and they're learning how to cook, not just for themselves but as a means of securing a job in the food-service industry.

The instruction takes place in the downtown Dwyer Overflow Shelter, not in some classroom far removed from reality. And the meals being prepared have a built-in audience: the shelter's residents.

So the students learning how to make migas at 7 one morning know their food is more than an assignment, it's actually going to be someone's breakfast.

"Most people get their first job working in a restaurant," said executive chef Mario Pérez, who guides the students through the program. "I know I did."

Pérez started at Earl Abel's when he was 14, and he's worked his way up through a number of restaurant kitchens. That's where he first met Robert Logan Jr., who is now working with Pérez and the Community Kitchen as sous-chef.

The two men lead the students through six weeks of kitchen work that includes instruction in everything from proper storage and proper freezing to work ethics and the ins and outs of the catering business. Nutrition and hygiene are also dealt with, so the students learn, for example, that they must keep their hands and work stations clean at all times.

Sous chef Robert Logan Jr. shows student chef Melissa Holloway how to prepare a stuffed chicken breast as part of the San Antonio Food Bank's Community Kitchen program to train homeless people.

Student Elizabeth Gilder checks the oven setting with Logan's guidance.

Pérez and student Cecilia Hartley prepare for the cooking school's graduation last month.

But through it all, the students are learning how to cook a variety of meals.

There's no set list of foods used, because the "all the food is donated," Pérez said. It could be beans and rice or beef stew meat, chicken or pasta.

In a way, it's like the mystery box competitions that chefs sometimes face in charity events. They're given a box of ingredients and forced to come up with a meal in a certain time period. The only differences are that this is no game and "it's a mystery box every day," said John McGinty, a St. Philip's culinary student who is interning at the kitchen.

Who shows up for class each day can also be a mystery to Pérez and Logan. Some students, like McGinty, will appear on a regular schedule. Others may need a little extra time to complete the program, especially if they're juggling day care needs, and the staff is willing to work with that. But about one-third will drop out before the end.

At present, six students, including McGinty and another intern from St. Philip's, Jill Jurkow, are working in the kitchen. Plus, there are return visits from students who have already graduated.

One of these is Eddie Brewer, who moved to San Antonio from Middletown, Ohio.

Brewer graduated from the program last year, but he showed up on a recent Friday and was put to work assembling several dozen lunches for a catering job. When those were finished, he turned to several dozen chickens that needed to be cut up for another catering job.

He's thankful for what he's learned and wants to learn more. "I want to experience all I can," he said. "I want to learn it all."

Brewer's also grateful for the help that Pérez has given him. "(Pérez) helped me and my wife, Val, with food," he said. The instructor also made a résumé for the 30-year-old and took him on job interviews. He hasn't landed a job yet, but he keeps trying.

"I try to look for work," Brewer said. "It's hard, really."

Pérez essentially shrugs off the praise. It's all part of the job. "I do that for everybody," he said about the résumés. And helping graduates find jobs is one of the Community Kitchen's missions.

The Community Kitchen was launched in October 2003. Since that time, its graduates have found work with places ranging from fast-food restaurants to RK Catering.

Several restaurants, including Andrea's Mexican Restaurant and the upcoming Yokonyu sushi bar, have sent volunteers to train the students. Pérez welcomes these additions to the program and the contacts they foster.

And it provides some extra food for the meals that must be prepared, even if not all of the people staying at the shelter were crazy for the sushi, McGinty said.

The kitchen will not stay on Dwyer Avenue forever. When the Food Bank builds its new facility near Texas 151 and U.S. 90, the kitchen will relocate, Logan said. The new kitchen will have about 3,000 square feet of space, which will allow more interns and the ability to provide more meals. "The after-school programs can expand," he said, "and our services to the homeless."

The Dwyer kitchen will remain active as a satellite.

The expansion will also allow for more catering jobs that come through the kitchen. Though December and January are the busiest times of the year, with contracts almost daily, Pérez and Logan have been leading their students through plenty of orders since then as well.

Some of the orders are for lunch boxes that feature sandwiches, fruit cups that the students have to prepare, cookies that are made in-house, and chips. Others are for barbecue, whatever the client wants.

The contracts can be for a few dozen people, but some have exceeded 1,000. One party for state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte was for 1,250, Pérez said.

All of these experiences help prepare the students for paying jobs. But there is one difference.

"I'm told a lot of chefs are screamers," said Jurkow. "Mario's not like that."

When the students finish the program, they are presented with a certificate during a graduation ceremony. Having that document "tells employees they know what they're doing," Pérez said. "They're a cut above the average Joe who's going to walk in there."

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