Transcript
What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. My name is Shefford Beckett-Kelley-Manders. I'm the chef and owner of Street Chefs. I am the Food Service Director for the Big Bend Homeless Coalition, and I'm also the founder and instructor for the Refire Culinary Program. Refire is a kitchen term, and it means to correct the mistake. So the term Refire has dual meaning there. You know, we're allowing these individuals who have a felony conviction to apply to the program, come into the program, take weeks long, learn about working in a kitchen, how to walk talk, think, move, read recipes, hold knives, proper sanitation techniques, all of these things, and then helping them get placed in jobs. The number of people who return to incarceration is 76% over five years. That means three out of every four, end up going back. Most of them will tell you because they could not find suitable and sustainable employment. It's just hard. I have a felony conviction. It's 24 years old. I still have to answer for it to the state. And I know that I'm lucky. I know that I was given an opportunity to move past and I was given the ability to become employed and I cannot in good conscience not allow someone else to have that opportunity. I understand that there are two sides to every coin. You know, the victim has a right to restitution for the wrong that was committed against them. And the individual who committed the crime has the right to move forward and become a whole person again. I slowly see the tide turning in our country towards restorative justice and instead of this punitive system that is all just about punishment. I can't fix the whole system, but I can do this and I can help some people move forward with their lives. I'm Chef Rebecca Kelly-Manders. I'm the chef and owner of Street Chefs, the Food Service Director for the Big Ben Homeless Coalition, and the Executive Director Instructor for the Refire Culinary Program. You're listening to voices that inspire.