BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Massachusetts College of Art and Design has named Waltham resident Toni Elka as one of its annual Common Good Award recipients.
Elka was honored alongside five other recipients at a ceremony on Saturday for her work at Future Chefs, the youth culinary training program she founded in 2008.
"Future Chefs is an after-school and out-of-school-time program which means that we work with Boston Public School students in a space of our own making, which is a beautiful laboratory kitchen," Elka said.
The program offers several educational tracks, including a plan that lets students get paid for their work.
"We use food as a medium to help young people learn a skill that they don't have, that they can use to be employed," Elka said.
The 72-year-old recently announced her retirement after serving as the program's longtime executive director. She described the job as "a joy."
"All adults should be spending some part of their time helping the people coming up behind them find themselves," Elka said.
WBZ NewsRadio's Carl Stevens (@carlwbz) reports.