Venice trying to determine whether it will reopen
Venice on Vine closed as Ohio shut its restaurants, and operated a food truck briefly. But now it’s trying to figure out whether to re-open. For 40 years, Sister Judy Tensing has served up bubbling-hot pies.
At Venice on Vine in Over-the-Rhine, the focus is on how pizza can help low-income participants enter the workforce.
“We are a non-traditional classroom,” Mark Shannon, the executive director of Power Inspires Progress, the nonprofit that runs Venice on Vine, has said.
The order to close all restaurants during COVID-19 hurt both their storefront and commercial-catering kitchen. Venice on Vine also provides access to transportation and connection to service agencies. Traditional industry training takes a couple of weeks. Venice on Vine’s lasts a year.
“What we’re trying to do is teach folks the culture of the workplace,” Shannon said. Eighty-two percent of trainees go onto full-time employment.
