It might surprise those who have never been in prison but there is a significant amount of cooking going on inside. That’s why the Community Change Center has chosen a food truck initiative to provide second-chance employment, reduce stigma, and serve great diner-style food to those working in the justice system.
“The goal is to support positive relationships between those who are justice-involved and those who work in the justice system,” said Sam Burgett, executive director and founding member of Community Change Center. Burgett is also one of two social workers for the Porter County Sheriff’s Office.
She met fellow Community Change Center co-founder and board member Raymond Powell when he was incarcerated at Westville Prison. The two dreamed up Fresh Starts Food Truck and a fundraising campaign is currently underway to raise $30,000 by Aug. 6 to purchase the truck and get it wrapped with a matching grant by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.
Community Change Center plans to gradually acquire a fleet of Fresh Starts food trucks and hopes to move into a brick-and-mortar restaurant someday. “It’s really one of those types of ventures that a lot of people in prison have an idea of,” Powell said. “It’s like the quickest way to entrepreneurship, some semblance of financial independence.”
He said people in prison give the communal microwaves quite a workout cooking everything from peanut butter fudge to nacho platters. To make a little money to spend at the commissary, inmates will offer food service with entire menus, he explained. “And they burn out all the time,” he said of the microwaves, “from heating up hot water to cooking up a whole Thanksgiving meal.”
Once operational, the first food truck will be based at the Porter County Jail parking lot and mostly cater to employees there. It will also offer food near the county courthouse and probation office, as well as at community events and interested businesses.
And this time the cooks won’t have to produce it via microwave. The initiative is looking for 10 area chefs to prepare a diner-style dish for the upcoming fundraiser where attendees can vote and help form the working menu for the truck “so people can come in and see the rehabilitation that is happening and support the effort on a larger scale,” Burgett said.
She said the food truck will help alleviate a problem the community has with trying to assist those who’ve been in prison. “All of our clients have been so excited about this initiative,” she said. “A lot of times businesses don’t want to advertise that they’re hiring the formerly incarcerated.”
Fresh Starts allows the mission to be front and center. “I hope it employs a whole bunch of people,” Powell said. “I hope that it can be supported by the community, sustained by the community, and not judged because they’ve already paid their debt to society.
“And it can be something as intimate as food from hand to mouth. Talk about trust. Come into the community and gain that trust.”
To help out: The Fresh Starts Specialty Menu Competition is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 27, at Living Hope Community Church, 1115 Calumet Ave. in Valparaiso. Tickets are $25 at the door. Bring cash to vote on your favorite dishes to be added to the food truck menu.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
