In March 2018 , after a year and a half of living off her savings, Ms. Molina found work at Hot Bread Kitchen in Harlem through an employment agency. She worked the afternoon shift, packing loaves of bread into bags. After eight months, though, she learned that her job was being eliminated. Hot Bread Kitchen gave Ms. Molina the option to train as a baker.

“I learned the basics of the kitchen: the bakery, the movement, all of it,” Ms. Molina said. “What I like is learning.”

To help Ms. Molina get to the training program from her apartment in Queens, the Community Service Society, one of seven organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, gave her a $121 monthly MetroCard in April .

Ms. Molina also started taking English classes. When the skills training was complete in June, she found work making pastries at a bakery in Manhattan.

Her pastry mixes of butter and flour turned to liquid from the summer heat. She learned to leave all the ingredients in the refrigerator and to take them out of the cold quickly to mix them.

In Caracas, Ms. Molina said, she knew how to cook meals for her family, but she wasn’t a chef or a baker. Still, the diligence and care she demonstrated in the courtroom are visible in her work in the kitchen.