(FORTUNE Magazine) – It was huge! That was Emily Arroyo's verdict when she first laid eyes on the $250,000 state-of-the-art industrial kitchen that Hyatt Corp. installed in 1990 on the eighth floor of Chicago's predominantly Hispanic Roberto Clemente High School. The donation was part of a program to introduce inner-city students to the culinary profession. The pair toting the hors d'oeuvres above are Sandra Marquez and Diana Villanueva. Some of the kids discover a passion for cooking: Arroyo, a 1995 graduate of Roberto Clemente, is now a head banquet chef at one of Hyatt's hotels.

--N.T.