Lifeline Culinary On The Job Training Program - Derreck Johnson

#061 - Today we talk to Derreck Johnson, Founder of the nonprofit The Black Owned Project 365, which runs the Lifeline Culinary On The Job Training Program, a fully certified apprenticeship program that trains and mentors recently incarcerated individuals so they can have careers in the restaurant industry.

The idea came to him while standing on the steps of the capital while his cousin, Kamala Harris, was being sworn in as Vice President.  But, this would not be his first rodeo.  He had experience with this population, hiring his first recently released individual back when he had an auto-detailing business, one of his early entrepreneurial ventures.

He found himself short-handed one day when the rain cleared up and a bunch of cars started showing up.

“I don't wanna turn this money away.  And one of the guys there was like, well, I can call the house and have some of my brothers come down.  I said, okay, please get them now. I'm just thinking he's calling his actual house. And his brothers were actually coming to work, but he was living in a halfway house.”

“they came in and they started working and I was like, hey, can you all come back tomorrow?”

Derreck ran his first pilot this fall.  He teaches them that the restaurant business requires hard work and you have to be consistent to be successful.  He believes one of the secret sauces of his program is access to him.  He works alongside them and does not give up on them if they stumble.

“I feel it does because they have a direct connection with someone that they would never have a direct connection with. Usually when they get into employment, you would not meet the boss. You wouldn't meet the person that's running the restaurant.”

Derreck still enjoys running his landmark Home of Chicken & Waffle restaurant in Jack London.  It is “must stop” for politicians and celebrities coming through Oakland.

Stick around til the end to hear about all the famous people who have visited the restaurant.