Six years after opening, a Philadelphia, PA, pizza shop continues its mission of providing a fresh start and making life easier for former inmates.
According to NBC News, the seven-member staff at Down North Pizza consists entirely of formerly incarcerated individuals, including executive chef Michael Carter.
Carter was searching for a new beginning after losing his job during the COVID-19 pandemic and selling barbecue meals off his porch.
“When I add up the guys who work here, it’s about 63 years incarcerated. So it’s like we understand each other, where we come from,” Carter told NBC. “We had the same barriers when we came home, like whether it be employment, housing, health care — we all had to figure it out.”
Carter was one of the first hires at Down North with experience in the kitchen, AFROTECH™ previously reported.
Childhood friends Kurt Evans and Muhammed Abdul-Hadi founded the North Philly staple, hoping to reduce recidivism rates in the area. The restaurant serves pizza, wings, loaded fries, homemade lemonade, and handspun milkshakes, all prepared in compliance with Islamic laws, making it entirely halal.
As AFROTECH™ reported, the business previously offered six months of free rent at the upstairs apartment for employees needing short-term housing, allowing them to save funds for permanent living.
“We just want to meet people where they’re at and help them along the way,” Evans said in 2021, AFROTECH™ noted. “It was very important for us to help these people coming from the system and break the cycle of mass incarceration.”
Since then, the North Philly establishment has become a community staple, offering a hangout spot, free lemonade for local kids, and free lunches for the neighborhood in times of need, per NBC.
Most of the staff members have formal culinary training, including Carter, who earned a degree in culinary management from the Art Institute and has worked in multiple restaurants. However, he said, he has never felt the sense of community Down North provides.
“In those restaurants, I kind of had to walk a tightrope,” Carter told NBC. “Like the locked-up guys are in the back with the undocumented workers. And everybody has to be quiet… And we don’t have any of that here. It’s based on mutual respect, admiration, and we all share the same journeys.”
The Justice Department reports that approximately two-thirds of individuals released from prison are likely to re-offend within three years, with one-third unable to find jobs within four years.
“We’re building a revolution for the people through business economics by looking to advance everyone, particularly the formerly incarcerated, so we can shatter glass ceilings,” said Abdul-Had, per NBC.
