As Culinary Director at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Nicholas Panepinto oversees the culinary training program, campus meal production, Liberation Coffee House, and operations. Nick joined the Center in 2018, developing and launching the Center’s 300-hour culinary arts training program. The intergenerational program works with those in the community who are at risk and or have lived experience with homelessness. The program reveals the power of food to not only build community at the Center, but to help foster pride, instill confidence, and empower participants. Nick joined the Center after working for two years with L.A. Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that helped to pioneer the job training, food recovery, and meal production program model.