The Learning Kitchen – Supporting the LRHSD TAP Program
The Learning Kitchen
Learning Today. Building Independence for Tomorrow.At Just Between Friends Catering, we have always believed that being part of a community means more than simply doing business in that community. It means giving back, creating opportunities, and helping people develop the skills and confidence they need to succeed. That belief led Mike Tarzy to create The Learning Kitchen, a new hands-on learning initiative developed to complement the Lenape Regional High School District's Transition to Adulthood Program (TAP). Through a partnership with LRHSD, The Learning Kitchen provides TAP students with opportunities to learn and practice valuable workplace and independent-living skills in a real-world food service environment at JBF Catering and Brooks Collins Chocolates.
What Is the LRHSD TAP Program?The Transition to Adulthood Program (TAP) is part of the Lenape Regional High School District's commitment to helping young adults with disabilities successfully transition from school into adult life. TAP goes beyond the traditional classroom by focusing on the practical skills students can use every day. Students work on areas such as employment readiness, communication, social interaction, independent living, responsibility, problem solving, and becoming more comfortable and confident in workplace environments. Community-based experiences are an important part of that education. They give students the opportunity to take skills they have learned and apply them in authentic settings alongside employers, staff members, customers, and other members of the community. The Learning Kitchen was created to provide another place where that learning can happen.
A Real Kitchen. Real Experiences. Real Skills.
There is a tremendous amount that can be learned in a working commercial kitchen. Through The Learning Kitchen, TAP students can be exposed to the day-to-day activities of a professional catering and confectionery operation while developing skills that can carry into future employment and independent living. Depending on each student's abilities, goals, and program, experiences may include food preparation, baking and confectionery, packaging, labeling, organizing supplies, inventory, kitchen safety and sanitation, cleaning, following instructions, working as part of a team, time management, customer service, and other essential workplace skills. The Learning Kitchen is about more than learning how to prepare food. It's about showing up, contributing, working with others, completing a task, learning from mistakes, developing confidence, and experiencing the pride that comes from a job well done. Those are skills that extend far beyond the kitchen.
A Partnership Built Around Opportunity
The Learning Kitchen isn't intended to replace the work being done by TAP teachers, staff, job coaches, and the Lenape Regional High School District. It was created to complement their work by providing students with another supportive, real-world environment in which they can learn, practice, grow, and discover what they are capable of accomplishing. JBF Catering and Brooks Collins Chocolates are proud to open their doors, share their facilities and experience, and work alongside LRHSD to create meaningful opportunities for TAP students. For us, this isn't simply a business partnership. It's a community partnership.
Deep Roots in Our Community
JBF Catering and Brooks Collins Chocolates have deep roots in South Jersey, and so do owners Mike Tarzy and Mike Collins. Both have longstanding connections to the local community and the Lenape Regional High School District. They understand the importance LRHSD plays not only in educating students, but in preparing young people to become active and valued members of the communities in which they live. JBF Catering has been serving families, businesses, schools, organizations, and community events throughout South Jersey for decades. Brooks Collins Chocolates was built with that same community-centered philosophy. The Learning Kitchen is a natural extension of that commitment. It's an opportunity to use what we already have — our kitchens, our businesses, our employees, and our experience — to help create opportunities for someone else.
Giving Back to the Community That Supports Us
Local businesses depend upon strong communities. We believe those businesses also have a responsibility to help strengthen them. The Learning Kitchen represents the commitment of JBF Catering and Brooks Collins Chocolates to give back to the community and to support the students, families, educators, and programs of the Lenape Regional High School District. If the experience helps a student discover a new skill, become a little more independent, feel more comfortable in a workplace, develop confidence, or take another step toward future employment, then The Learning Kitchen is accomplishing exactly what it was created to do.
The Learning Kitchen
Learn a skill.
Build confidence.
Gain independence.
Create opportunity.
JBF Catering and Brooks Collins Chocolates are proud to partner with the Lenape Regional High School District Transition to Adulthood Program and proud to invest in the young adults of our community.
Delicious Meals. A Great Cause. One Thursday a Month.
Make the last Thursday of every month something to look forward to with a subscription to The Learning Kitchen!
From October 2026 through May 2027, subscribers will receive one freshly prepared family-style meal each month, featuring a different menu every month and generously portioned to feed 4–6 people — all for just $50 per meal including a delicious box of BC Chocolate.
It’s an easy way to take dinner off your plate one night a month while supporting The Learning Kitchen and its mission to provide meaningful, hands-on learning opportunities within our community.
Your 8-month subscription is conveniently billed monthly through BC Chocolates, so there’s no need to pay for the entire program upfront.
Great Food. Family Dinner. A Great Cause.
$50 per month | Feeds 4–6 people | October 2026–May 2027
Space is limited, so subscribe today and reserve your meal for the last Thursday of every month!
LRHDS Employees meals will be delivered to your respective schools. All others can be picked up at BC Chocolates in Tabernacle NJ.
LRHDS Employees meals will be delivered to your respective schools. All others can be picked up at BC Chocolates in Tabernacle NJ.