Homeless men and women will be trained to cook for weddings and boardroom buffets.

Charity bosses from Brighton Housing Trust (BHT) claim pushing people into the kicthen will transform “vunerable adults’” self confidence and boost their chances of employment.

The enterprise, called Dine!, will also help raise funds for the Sussex homelessness charity.

The new initiative will be staffed by volunteers who are homeless or live in insecure housing.

All of the workers have graduated from an initial six week training programme run at the First Base Day Centre in Montpelier Place, giving them essential skills, a hygiene certificate and an expectation of life in a professional kitchen.

Persis Cornet, Dine's! Chef/Coordinator said the initiative was launched after the sucess of a training scheme over the last two years.

He added: "Dine! is a unique project that enables homeless men and women to learn new skills, and begin to take steps to move away from homelessness and towards a more positive future.”

"Dine! started out as a training scheme for service users at First Base Day Centre. Over the last two years it has established a great reputation for delivering high quality, affordable buffets and began to really take off. It made us realise there was potential to develop the service into a social enterprise in order to continue creating opportunities for our service users whilst raising much needed funds for Brighton Housing Trust.

“I am really excited to be coordinating Dine! and feel confident that it will grow from strength to strength".

Mr Cornet said the homeless staff would be expected to use locally sourced ingredients whenever possible to cater for a variety of events including working lunches, boardroom buffets and family celebrations and weddings.

While working for the service, volunteers will learn about all aspects of the catering industry as well as the finance side of the business and improving their communication skills.

Since the 1960s BHT has developed a comprehensive range of services, working in partnership with other organisations, to meet the needs of homeless, insecurely housed and vulnerable men and women.

Its services aim to tackle both the causes and effects of homelessness and poverty.

In 2008 BHT worked with over 12,000 men and women providing practical and preventative services, advice and legal representation, information and guidance in order to improve the quality of people's lives.

To contact Dine! Telephone 01273 326844 or visit dine@bht.org.uk.