Latest News & Updates

We are delighted to announce an anonymous gift of $10,000 to inaugurate the Zakee Cooper Memorial Fund. In June 2019 Zakee graduated from the CookWell program with flying colors, a milestone for someone who had [...]

In a sweeping acknowledgment of the risks of coronavirus in cramped prisons, New Jersey began last November the early release of what will amount to more than 3,000 inmates in the coming months. With this [...]

In recent months CookWell has been using the program hiatus imposed by COVID-19 to super-charge our development as a nonprofit. We’ve made real strides, working hard to upgrade our culinary training model, revise our mentorship [...]

This new model retains the strengths of our original one, while giving us enhanced flexibility in serving program participants.

Four new members were recently added to the CookWell Advisory Board. Jason Reaves CookWell is fortunate to welcome Jason Reaves. Currently a sous chef at Bucks County Playhouse, Jason comes to us with a wealth [...]

Several of us involved in the early planning of the CookWell program met Ms. Pierre-Louis in January 2018, when she was an assistant US attorney for New Jersey and headed the Trenton office.

The Princeton Area Community Foundation (PACF), in partnership with The Burke Foundation, awarded LJTP’s CookWell program a $10,000 grant for program support in 2019-20. We are grateful for this timely award, which has provided a [...]

Zakee Abdul "Willie" Cooper 1983 - 2020 The CookWell family was deeply saddened by Zakee Cooper’s tragic death on March 2 to gun violence. Just last summer, in June 2019, Zakee graduated from the CookWell [...]

Through early 2020 we’ve gone through three training cycles and celebrated six people graduating. Several graduates have found employment in the food industry. One, Zakee Cooper, was climbing the corporate ladder at the Cheesecake Factory, [...]