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TC3.biz Offers ServSafe Workshop

Food Handler Certification Course Offered in March; Alcohol Service Course in April

DRYDEN, N.Y. — In response to upcoming changes in requirements for the food service industry, TC3.biz is offering ServSafe workshops this spring. "The ServSafe: Food Handler in Charge" workshop will provide students the opportunity to become certified with the National Restaurant Association. A separate workshop, "ServSafe: Alcohol Service Training," will offer strategies for providing alcohol responsibility while maintaining excellent customer service.

The certification course is particularly timely, given a regulation that will soon go into effect in New York state. The regulation will require each facility that provides food service to have at least one person on staff who is ServSafe certified. "At this point, we are recommending that all of our permitted facilities begin the process of having at least one person in their employ become standardized," said Carol Chase, senior public health sanitarian for the Tompkins County Health Department. "It is not mandatory at this time, but will be in the not too distant future."

The TC3.biz workshops will be led by certified ServSafe instructor John Martindale. A TC3 professor and chair of the College’s hotel and restaurant management program, Martindale has more than three decades of experience teaching in the field. He has taught at TC3 for 34 years, starting the original food service management program in 1974. Martindale earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.

The Food Handler in Charge workshop will be offered twice. The first section will be held Friday and Saturday, March 7 and 8, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days. Registration for this section is required by February 22. The second section will be held Friday and Saturday, May 9 and 10, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Registration for the second section is required by April 18. The workshop costs $199, including textbook and course materials.

The alcohol service training workshop will be held Monday, April 28 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It costs $89, including textbook and lunch.

TC3.biz is the business development and training arm of Tompkins Cortland Community College. More information on these and all TC3.biz workshops can be found by e-mailing info@TC3.biz or by calling 607.844.6586.