Second Helpings extends a warm welcome to the newest addition to its family. Chef Felicia Grady begins this week as the new Culinary Job Training Instructor. With culinary schooling and training as a graduate of the Chef’s Academy and experience at Flanner House, Lighthouse Mission, and Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS), Chef Felicia brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Second Helpings culinary team.
Since she was in middle school, Chef Felicia has been cooking for others. While her path diverged from cooking when she grew up, she returned to it after years of running her own business. For the past seven years, Chef Felicia worked in large kitchens, managing meals for almost 1,000 children at the IPS kitchen she ran. However, she knew that she wanted to go in a different direction.
A little feeling inside her urged her to attend the Fantastic Food Fest at the Indiana State Fair this past year, where she met Chef Liz Gimenez, the Director of Hunger Relief at Second Helpings. After speaking with Chef Liz and knowing that she wanted a change, Chef Felicia called multiple people about working towards her Certified Culinary Educator (CCE) certification but wasn’t finding much success until she reached Chef Jeff Bricker with Ivy Tech. Chef Bricker, a Second Helpings board member, encouraged her to go into Second Helpings. Chef Felicia decided to go in and lo and behold, she found Director of Culinary Job Training Chef Vincent Kinkade at his desk, a rarity when the chef is normally with the students in the kitchen! Speaking with him about what she wanted to do, Chef Felicia found a perfect fit and began her internship at Second Helpings soon after. “I was in the door on February 13th – it felt like a blessing to be here. Everything lined up to put me here at that time.”
Chef Felicia would work at IPS and then come to Second Helpings. “I loved it – every day I felt excited to come here. Even on the one day that I felt tired, we ended up fabricating chickens and it turned out well!” A few months later, the position of Culinary Job Training Instructor opened up and Chef Felicia jumped at the opportunity to work full-time at Second Helpings, putting her training and experience to good use.
This is Chef Felicia’s first week and she’s excited to get started! “I like helping other people. I want to help students in a whole lot of areas, including cooking and other skills like teaching them how to be willing to listen and learn. I also want to teach them that no one’s perfect – everyone makes mistakes, including me.” She’s also looking forward to the challenge of figuring out how to use the rescued food that is available. “I’m always looking for new recipes and self-educating myself, so this will be a good challenge for me.”
Are you a chef who’s interested in a career at that impacts thousands of lives across Central Indiana each day? Consider applying to become our part-time kitchen assistant.
Written by Abby Rolland