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Shane Crary-Ross spent her childhood summers at farm camp, where her favorite activities were cow milking and bread baking. These days, she studies economics and social work at New York University, and spends her free time gardening, bicycling and reading science fiction.

I would recommend to anyone who has a dream about changing the world or changing a single life to follow their dream, to be prepared to fail and to be unpopular, but to be tenacious and determined and committed, and to work very, very hard to make sure you are doing the best you can.  Surround yourself with good advisors and make sure that you hold onto your vision – many people will try to push you in different directions, but follow your gut, while being very practical.  Hold on to your vision.
- Bridget Sampson, Kitchens for Change

Some might call Galen and Bridget Sampson’s marriage a match made in social entrepreneurial heaven – he was a five-star chef with a desire to make a difference, and she a writer with a passion for social justice who had received an Open Society Institute Fellowship to bring a family literacy program to the Baltimore Women’s Detention Center.  In different contexts, Bridget wrote in an email, they had both witnessed firsthand the devastation addiction wreaks on individuals, the family, and the community, and felt called to do something to address this daunting social problem.  Together, they embarked on a journey to help people transform their lives.

In 2005, the Sampsons opened The Dogwood, a “neighborhood gourmet” restaurant serving new American food made from local, seasonal and organic ingredients whenever possible.  But the restaurant’s sustainability went beyond the environment – they embedded into their operations a training program for people recovering from homelessness, addiction and incarceration.  The following year, Galen was awarded his own Open Society Institute fellowship to grow that program.  Though many of their  former trainees are now employed in the Baltimore restaurant industry, the first years weren’t without their challenges.

The fact that the training program was originally so entirely integrated into the operations of The Dogwood was often confusing for Galen and Bridget, who managed the restaurant and the program, as well as for their patrons.  The sophisticated nature of the food threw another hurdle into the path of the program, since it meant that there were few entry-level jobs available, and it was difficult for Galen to produce the quality of food he wanted to without a more experienced staff.

“Certainly people were rooting for us because of our mission, but the food has to be good for people to come back,” Bridget wrote.

Perhaps the biggest challenge the Sampsons faced in the early years was being unable to provide the wide breadth of support services necessary for trainees to truly change their lives.  Bridget realized that program participants needed a “constellation of services,” including not only job training but also housing, recovery support, and life-skills counseling.  The couple’s vision evolved – “turning out well-trained line cooks,” she wrote, “is not our mission. Our mission is to transform lives one plate at a time.”  The kitchen, then, is a means, not an end — it’s a great metaphor for life, teaching self-sufficiency and responsibility, as well as team work.

Thus, building on their experience, the Sampsons expanded the scope of the  program to include both hands-on and classroom training, ongoing life skills counseling and case management, a community supportive of transition, and job placement and follow-up support services.  They’ve attained non-profit status for the training program, now known as Kitchens for Change, and have separated it from The Dogwood, opening instead a café and catering business that is owned and operated by the non-profit, Plates Café and Catering.  “It’s been a tough, life-changing journey,” Bridget wrote, “but now we feel as though we’re right where we want to be.”