Greenville restaurant offers opportunity for trafficking victims

GREENVILLE - The old house that sits along Augusta Road doesn't look like much, but it holds the promise of a thousand possibilities. Its craftsman lines and worn frame that tell a story many years past will begin a new chapter when it opens as Jasmine Kitchen this fall.

Jasmine will be a first for Greenville both in menu and in model. While the lunch-only menu will center on wholesome scratch-made soups, salads and sandwiches, all from local ingredients, the social enterprise model will center on lasting community impact versus monetary gain.

The idea for the cafe has been simmering for more than two years but is coming to the fore after several strategic partnerships. Jasmine Kitchen is part of phase two of Jasmine Road, a Greenville-based nonprofit that works to heal, empower and employ victims of sex trafficking. Nearly all the women Jasmine works with come to the organization having been in and out of jail and prison for drugs and prostitution, and nearly all are also dealing with drug and alcohol addiction.

Nearly all have also been physically and or sexually abused over their life.

"The question is not being asked what happened to you and how did you get to this point," said Beth Messick, executive director of Jasmine Road. "So we started asking those questions, what is underlying this."

Jasmine Road offers the only such residential program in the state, utilizing a dynamic, collaborative approach that combines physical, emotional and mental healing.

The restaurant adds another layer to that, financial healing. Profits from the cafe will be funneled into Jasmine Road, helping to support the organization and making it less dependent on the fundraising most nonprofits require.

"We don't want to sacrifice quality just because it's a nonprofit," said Kathryn Norwood, Jasmine Road board chair and a driving force behind the cafe. "And we don't have to."

But the cafe also will help answer a broader need within the community, gainful employment for those who have a criminal record.

Without a job, people often end up back in prison, said Messick, who has worked within the realm of sex trafficking, addiction and abuse for two decades.

"If they don't have a way to make an income, then they end up going right back to the streets," Messick said.

As with Jasmine Road, which draws on a collaborative, community approach to addressing a very large issue, Jasmine Kitchen is equally stacked with community partners who are helping create a place that not only has a great story, but also great food.

"We want people to immediately feel this warm, welcoming, nurturing community," Norwood said, reflecting on the cafe's atmosphere. "And we want that to be reflected in everything we do, the staffing, the food preparation and the environment inside. We want to build community, and what better than food to bring people together?"

Messick knows a lot of stories. There's the one about the woman whose mother sold her for drugs when she was 9; the one about the woman who'd been sexually abused by a family member as a child and was later raped as an adult; there is the one about a woman who as a young teen watched her older sister turn to drugs and prostitution, and who saw it all as normal when she herself followed the same path at 18.

It's easy to assume why someone turns to drugs and prostitution, but behind those assumptions there are real people and generally a lot of abuse.

"There is no daylight between us and these women," Messick said, her voice kind but direct.

At the core, Jasmine Kitchen will be a place where this tenet is realized and respected. Organizers are designing the restaurant as an equal playing field of sorts, where all are welcome to work and to eat, and no distinction is made between who is who.

"We're all a community," Messick said.

In her decades-long career working with women on the streets and in prison, Messick has learned some things:

One, recidivism is likely.

Two, recovery and help must be a multi-pronged approach.

Three, a job and job skills are imperative for long-term recovery.

Studies back that up. Incarcerated people are unemployed at a rate of more than 27% - higher than the total U.S. unemployment rate during any historical period, including the Great Depression, according to research by the Prison Policy Initiative.

More states are recognizing the connection between employment opportunities and recidivism. Last year, several, including South Carolina, passed expungement legislation specifically aimed at bridging the gap between the need for workers in the state and the need for jobs among those coming out of prisons.

A job is key to breaking the cycle, Messick said, both financially and mentally.

"Think about it, what you do is a huge piece of your identity," Messick said. "It's something you can find meaning in."

Organizers have based their model on Thistle Farms, a nonprofit in Nashville, Tennessee. Thistle Farms has found success in the social enterprise realm, running its own cafe and a very successful bath and body products business that offers jobs for its clients and funding for the organization.

Jasmine is working on setting up an apprenticeship program that will allow residents who work in the restaurant to earn credits that could be applied to future job or schooling opportunities. Already, Jasmine is working with employers who would recognize that experience and offer the women jobs in the future.

"We want to infuse those skills while they're with Jasmine Road so they can move beyond," Messick said.

On a recent morning, Messick and Norwood are meeting to discuss details of upcoming culinary training at Project Host's CC Pearce Culinary School. They gather in a small room on the second floor of Triune Mercy Center. The non-denominational church that works with the homeless community has been an important partner for Jasmine Road, offering not only physical space but also addiction-recovery support and guidance.

Such partnerships help make Jasmine possible. Thanks to an extensive community partner network that includes Triune, Christ Church Episcopal, Bon Secours St. Francis, the Caine Halter YMCA, Greenville Tech and the Julie Valentine Center, Jasmine can provide everything from free medical care, free counseling and free yoga classes to free food and free help with education.

"It's a collaborative care model," Norwood said of the Jasmine structure. "We did not want to duplicate anything that we could partner with somebody to do."

And so, for the restaurant, Norwood and Messick looked for partners as well. They found both a partner and an ardent advocate in the owners of Kitchen Sync.

On a recent morning, Kitchen Sync's normally boisterous atmosphere is humming with pre-lunch prep. Now, after three years, owners Kevin Feeny and Karin and John Farrell are ready to take the restaurant to the next level, one that is rooted less in food and more in community.

They are poised to reveal KiSS (Kitchen Sync Stewardship), a program to help fund meaningful community projects. But the goal of KiSS is not just to donate to worthy organizations, but to become involved in them in a way that creates more lasting change.

Since opening, the owners have funneled two percent of every sale into a fund to be used for community betterment. Jasmine Kitchen is the first KiSS initiative.

"It stems from the farming philosophy of feed the soil, not the plant," Feeny explained of seeking lasting impact. "If we are out there feeding the soil within the community, nurturing things we would like to change, then ultimately what sprouts will be much more resilient and stronger."

The partnership has evolved for both Jasmine and Kitchen Sync. Feeny is acting as a consultant on the new restaurant, advising on everything from business plan to design of the kitchen and placement of appliances.

He also is helping with food service training for Jasmine residents, and with establishing an infrastructure for training and an apprenticeship program.

Kitchen Sync has plans for several other KiSS projects this year and next.

On a recent Friday afternoon, the Jasmine Road residence - the renovated house that serves as the backbone of Jasmine Road and a refuge for the women the group helps - is filled with bright light. The house's big windows welcome in the summer light in a beautiful cascade that makes the space feel all the homier.

While the Jasmine Road program includes many pieces for recovery, most of them begin in the home.

That tenet is also central to Jasmine Kitchen, which aside from being in an old house, is being built around the idea of comfort. Hence, the focus on soup.

Some thought a restaurant a strange choice to employ women, most of whom are in recovery for drug and alcohol addiction, Norwood said. Jasmine Road already launched a handmade candle business, which will also help fund day- to-day operations, but food is universal, Norwood said, and so it offers a unique opportunity to relate people to one another.

"Food touches all the senses," Norwood said. "We needed something that brought everybody together. Everyone loves food."

The restaurant also offers a chance to create what Messick calls a "survivor network" whereby women who have graduated from the Jasmine program and have come to the other side can help other women. Hope is powerful, she said.

Not all residents will work at Jasmine Kitchen, and not all will be in the public eye. In fact, it's likely that customers will have no clue who is a resident and who is not. In that way, Norwood and Messick see the place as an equalizing space that reinforces the idea (for both the women in the Jasmine program and for customers) that we are all pieces of this community.

"We want to spread the message that there is no us and them, it's just us," Messick said.

Jasmine Kitchen is located at 503 Augusta St., Greenville. The restaurant will be open for lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., offering healthy, scratch-made soups, salads, sandwiches and baked goods. Seating for 40 inside and an additional 20 or so outside. Follow the progress here.

___

Information from: The Greenville News, http://www.greenvillenews.com