UL students stepped outside the classroom Tuesday and inside the walls of Lafayette Parish Correctional Center. The partnership comes from the hospitality management program at the university and the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office.
"It was a blessing to be able to show someone else and directing someone else to do your job. It felt good,' said inmate Chad Williams.
Although it isn't the typical classroom setting, LPSO's Dietitian Dr. Jennifer Jackson believes both the inmates and students learn valuable lessons.
"What's been so exciting is when you think of a college environment students are going there to learn," said Dr. Jennifer Jackson. "They're actually going to jail to learn. So, the inmates are teaching the students how to do massive cooking."
In addition to the hands-on experience of cooking for large crowds, there were even bigger lessons for students to walk away with.
"I told them when it comes to cooking it has to come from the heart. I mean whatever they're trying to accomplish in life, you have to start from the heart and that's what I've learned in my time of incarceration," said Williams.
