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Syracuse’s With Love Restaurant Sparks New Futures for Students With Checkered Pasts With Love Restaurant Sparks New Futures For Students With Checkered Pasts

By Ian Toner

Catina Glenn: You can’t sit and say, just because I went to prison, I come out to society, there’s nothin’ there for me. It’s there if you want it. But you got to get up and you gotta go get it. Life is not gonna bring you anything.

Reporter: Catina Glenn used to have a career in food service. But following a dispute with a former partner, she was convicted of felony domestic violence. She spent eight years and two months behind bars.

Glenn: Of course it was culture shock for me. Definitely culture shock.

Reporter: After getting released, one employer took a chance on her. But more bad news came once they found out how recent her felony conviction was.

Glenn: “They did let me go.”

Reporter: When a case worker told Catina about With Love’s training program, she jumped at the opportunity to learn. She’s now in her third week of training in the kitchen.

Glenn: I feel like I’m showing up with a family and we’re doing something for a purpose.

Reporter: Since opening its doors in December 2016, With Love has trained about 45 cooks and servers per year. The program director says the best students consistently show up on time and check their egos at the door.

Joe Bilecki was promoted to Program Director at With Love in January. He teaches Catina and her classmates in the kitchen every day.

Bilecki: I mean I know they’re adults, but I’d call them my kids.

Reporter: As Program Director, he meets with restaurant managers looking for kitchen workers on a regular basis.

Bilecki: In the food service industry, working back in the kitchen, they don’t care what you did.”

Reporter: When he worked at other restaurants before With Love, Bilecki regularly hired line cooks and servers with criminal records and stints in rehab. He wants to help his students learn in a safe environment.

Bilecki: Instead of going right out into the workforce and if they make a mistake, they get fired…if they make a mistake here, we go over it and we try and fix it.

Reporter: Bilecki and With Love want to produce job-ready cooks and servers that restaurant managers can count on. Bilecki believes Catina is on track to be one of them.

Bilecki: I think she has a bright future.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – With Love Program Director Joe Bilecki has worked in the restaurant industry for 32 years. He knows that restaurant managers don’t care about their workers’ pasts.

“As long as you show up on time, work hard and do the job, that’s all that really matters,” Bilecki said.

With Love opened in December 2016 with that understanding in mind. The teaching restaurant helps turn lives around by giving convicts and other central New Yorkers who have a hard time finding work the skills to land entry-level restaurant jobs in kitchens and on wait staffs.

Catina Glenn used to work in the food service industry. But a dispute with a former partner led to a felony domestic violence conviction. She spent eight years and two months behind bars.

“It was culture shock for me,” she said. “I knew I was going to be gone for a long time, away from my family.”

Glenn took on leadership roles in her correctional facility to stay disciplined. After her release from prison, she struggled to find steady work. One employer fired her after three months on the job because of her past.

Eventually, a case worker helping Glenn told her about With Love’s training program.

“The ability to not be looked at due to your past situation or circumstances was special to me,” Glenn said.

Glenn is now in her third week of training as a line cook–a role she’s never held before. Glenn and her classmates will be cooking and preparing Somalian food for With Love diners until they graduate in December.

“I have the support of my family and friends, but I feel as though it’s not their responsibility to take care of me in life,” Glenn said. “I want to be able to have a secure job, be faithful, show up and build a family with my colleagues.”

Central New Yorkers can start an application to train in With Love’s kitchen online. Bilecki said he’s currently working through a wait list, but he still keeps time for interviews every Friday afternoon.

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