There’s a nonprofit in New York City that’s offering a leg-up for formerly incarcerated folks. Drive Change connects them with jobs managing food trucks from Snowday – a farm-fresh joint offering grilled cheese sandwiches, produce and more.
“A felony conviction is like the ultimate black eye,” the Director of Engagement at Drive Change, Roy Waterman, told Pix 11. “No matter how many years pass by it’s always on your record.”
Drive Change offers year-long, paid fellowships to young folks aged 17 to 25 who want to work in the food industry. The founder, Jordyn Lexton, said their experience as an English teacher in jail is what inspired them to create the organization. Working within the criminal justice system, they realized there were few opportunities for young folks to rehabilitate.
“One of the few places in the jail where my students were really happy was in the culinary arts class, with the power of teamwork, camaraderie and a shared meal,” Lexton told the AP.
The training and mentorship are on-point. From courses in marketing and business management to working as the head chef, the Drive Change program develops every skill needed to run a Snowday truck and work in the restaurant biz. And at the end of the year Drive Change pays wages as the workers transition into new restaurant jobs and reintegrate back into the workforce. #winning.
Drive Change – which is a certified b-corp (read our piece on b-corps) – also offers a “Hospitality for Social Justice” training for business owners who want to direct their work towards creating positive change in their communities.
“A restaurant is a brick and mortar,” Lexton told T74. “You have to wait for people to come to you. For me, the food truck was the most social justice thing about what we were doing because it was like going out and announcing to the world ‘hey, the system is really f–d up, you should know about it, and we should all do something about it together.’”
