This food truck changes lives

When Café Patachou founder Martha Hoover met Jordyn Lexton three years ago at a conference in New York City, Hoover knew that she wanted Lexton’s work to inspire Hoosiers.

Lexton, just 26 at the time, was running Drive Change, a Brooklyn-based organization using a food truck to teach and empower teens and young adults coming home from prison. Lexton talks about her work at the Patachou Foundation’s Speakers Forum 7 p.m. Feb. 18 at Park Tudor School, 7200 N. College Ave.

Hoover’s Patachou Foundation provides healthy meals to children affected by homelessness and hunger. The foundation also educates kids about the food they are eating.

“I really loved everything she said (at the conference). I loved her energy. I loved her drive. I really loved her heart, and I asked her then to come,” Hoover said of Lexton.

New York is one of only two states that prosecutes 16- and 17-year olds as adults. Before launching Drive Change, Lexton taught high school at Rikers Island, New York City’s main prison and one of the nation’s roughest jails.

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Lexton witnessed many students failing in their post-prison lives. Seventy percent of youths incarcerated in adult prisons are likely to be arrested or incarcerated again after their release from jail, the Drive Change website reports. Lexton also noticed that many of her students in the prison were especially excited about culinary classes. The combination helped inspire Drive Change.

Drive Change operates a food truck named Snow Day, which has won honors the Vendy Awards, a competition that recognizes New York City’s top food trucks. Drive Change participants, which the organization calls “fellows,” get certified in food service training, work on the truck and may stay with Drive Change as they search for work or educational opportunities following the experience.

“They train in the food trucks then go on to work at some of finest restaurants in New York,” Hoover said.

“This is what got me the most: She (Lexton) has had zero percent recidivism. So these kids that come out of Rikers, damaged by the system, damaged by poverty, damaged by the lives they have led, and those lives give little opportunity for opportunity, and these kids, they’re children basically, get pride in the work. They have job opportunities, and they go on to a productive life, which is incredible.”

“It’s a very scalable model, and someone could be doing it in any city where there is a population of people coming out of prison,” Hoover said. “And what city doesn’t have that population?”

This year, Lexton made it on the Forbes magazine’s list “30 under 30: Social Entrepreneurs.”

Three ticket levels are available for the Patachou Foundation Speaker’s Forum. General admission costs $50. A $200 ticket includes a pre-event cocktail reception with Jordyn Lexton and general admission. A $250 ticket includes a private dinner at Napolese Pizzeria with Jordyn Lexton and general admission.

Purchase tickets at eventbrite.com. Search “Patachou.” For more information about the event, contact Matthew Feltrop at matthew@thepatachoufoundation.org or call (317) 202-0765.

Call Liz Biro at (317) 444-6264. Follow her on Twitter @lizbiro, Instagram @lizbirodish, Facebook and Pinterest.