The smell of home-cooked baking wafts through the air, the whistle of a steaming kettle echoes throughout the room, and cocoa filled coffee mugs line the counter – it sounds and smells just like home, but it’s not, it’s Vi’s kitchen.

“The kids love it here,” Vi Deters exclaimed. “It’s just like grandma’s kitchen.”

Vi joined Ranch Ehrlo 29 years ago after leaving the farm to become a house mom “for just one year”; though somehow, that one year rolled into 29.

“I wrote a note on a piece of paper that said I would be interested in working here and I threw it in the mail. I had an interview with the late Jim Ennis, and he asked ‘why would you want to work here anyways?’ And I said ‘because I want to.’ He said ‘okay, come tomorrow.’”

Vi worked at Rorison house as a house mom for 14 years before developing the food service program at Schaller school on the Pilot Butte campus. The program was initially designed to meet the needs of a few young men who weren’t excelling in traditional education or routine, she explained.

A space was secured at Schaller school and SaskEnergy generously sponsored the natural gas to fuel appliances. The house moms raised $7,000 to equip the kitchen with the necessary tools and utensils.

In its beginnings, the program allowed youth to receive work experience and apprentice hours so they could begin working in the community. Over time, the program evolved to become more of an educational-based program.

“The kitchen lets the kids recognize their strengths,” said Vi. “If they’re not doing well in their classrooms we find that they excel in here because it’s hands-on learning. They develop the same skills they just don’t realize it.”

Each student at Schaller school spends two half-days per week in the kitchen, working, and learning alongside Vi. The youth begin with the Safe Food Handling course and then move on to study the Canada Food Guide. They prep, cook, bake, and clean each week, learning important life skills they can use into the future.

The young chefs cater events and meetings for small groups at the Hudson administration building and at Schaller school. The students also work in the Cook Shop each morning, preparing soup and sandwiches and a hot lunch for students who stay at school, and for staff and guests to purchase at minimal cost.

“The awesome thing about this program is that I get to meet and work with all the kids that come through our doors,” said Vi. “There have been hundreds of them. I remember the first ones the best, and still keep in touch with them every now and then.”