Les Dames d'Escoffier South Florida
Les Dames d'Escoffier South Florida
Paying it Forward for Future Generations!
Scholarship presentation to Maria Franks at Brulé Bistro in Delray Beach
LDEI South Florida is a 501c3 organization. Through our fundraising efforts, we promote thee significance of food, beverage and hospitality in all cultures with the goal of providing opportunities for education and career advancement.
One of the most important activities of the Les Dames d’Escoffier chapters is to raise funds in support of charitable endeavors. The money raised goes to such things as scholarship programs, training programs and charitable giving within the community. This is the time that each Dame gets involved in giving back to her community. The South Florida Chapter normally sponsors six fundraisers a year, with the proceeds going to benefit our scholarship fund. One scholarship is awarded yearly. Recipients are high school seniors or college students accepted or matriculated in a culinary academic program in South Florida. Scholarship applications are received from applicants in the chapter area of Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin and Monroe counties. Applications are vetted by the scholarship committee and finalists are interviewed by the scholarship committee. Recommendations are sent to the Board of Directors for the final approval.
Our South Florida Chapter scholarship winner for 2019-2020 is Maria Franks. Maria graduated in May 2020 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. While attending college, she also worked part time, gaining four years of experience as a restaurant server and Maître D’ in the hospitality industry at the Boca Raton Country Club. Maria has a strong desire to acquire knowledge. She is very interested in going into the field of wine and is very passionate about learning about it. She has shown her appreciation in many ways to Les Dames South Florida. Maria loves being at events with Les Dames. Maria plans to study more courses in wine. She will focus on a specialization in the field as she gains more knowledge about what is available to her.
