Jacksonville, FL (population: 822,401) has one catering school within its city limits. Florida Community College at Jacksonville has a total student population of 28,877. It is the 4235th highest ranked school in the USA and the 231st highest in the state of Florida (#1 is University of Miami).
Catering students from Jacksonville schools who go on to become caterers, professional caterers, food service managers, food service directors, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 11,218,260 people working as food preparation and serving related employees alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $20,880. Also, Meeting and convention planners make on average $48,060 per year and there are about 51,530 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Jacksonville area alone, there are 500 employed meeting and convention planners earning an average salary of $37,580. Food preparation and serving related employees in this area earn $20,090/yr and there are 51,580 employed.
Jacksonville lies in Duval county, which is one of the 49 counties in Florida. Overall, the Jacksonville area has 581,450 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $19/hr average worker wage, and a $39,460 average annual salary. Thus, about 89 out of every 1000 jobs in Jacksonville are held by food preparation and serving related employees, and 1/1000 are held by meeting and convention planners.
After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Florida Community College at Jacksonville ends up costing a student $6,668/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Jacksonville |
| Orange Park | FL | - | 3 | 22.5405 | 26 | 11.7 miles |
| Saint Augustine | FL | - | 2 | 46.0117 | 74 | 36.6 miles |
| Palm Coast | FL | 76,000 | 0 | - | 0 | 59.1 miles |
| Gainesville | FL | 116,277 | 8 | 23.682 | 358 | 61.2 miles |
| Waycross | GA | - | 2 | 12.3956 | 59 | 73.7 miles |
| Ocala | FL | 57,520 | 3 | 20.3525 | 108 | 83.8 miles |
| Daytona Beach | FL | 63,815 | 4 | 31.0595 | 184 | 86.9 miles |
| South Daytona | FL | - | 1 | 30.9321 | 7 | 89.6 miles |
| Deland | FL | - | 2 | 24.7322 | 98 | 92.6 miles |