‘I am better than what I was doing’: Lincoln pop-up eatery gives ex-inmates new purpose

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A local restaurant has spent the past year helping formerly incarcerated people get their life back on track.

Ybor – A second Chance Kitchen is a pop-up restaurant that makes hot pressed Cuban sandwiches.

The organization also provides culinary training and coaching for people reentering society after prison.

Executive Director Bill Radtke said that in 2023, Nebraska had one of the most overcrowded prison systems in America.

“The need is right there on our doorstep,” he said. “Finding meaningful work and jobs that can provide stability is one of the most difficult challenges for someone facing reentry.”

Cody Shafer, one of Ybor’s chefs, said he was diagnosed with autism as a kid and fell in with the wrong crowd, eventually getting into legal trouble.

He said it was tough to readjust after getting out of prison in 2022.

“With the autism and the record, it was like, ‘I can’t find any jobs,'” he said. “No one’s really taking that risk.”

Radtke said simply changing the words used to talk about someone can help them improve.

“People who are navigating reentry, they’re constantly labeled a felon,” he said. “When you apply for jobs, you have to say you’re a felon. Housing, you’re a felon. And for us, we want to give a new title to someone, and that’s ‘chef.'”

When Shafer heard about Ybor, he said it was a “God send.”

He was facing more charges after getting out of prison, but Ybor helped him turn things around.

“When it came time for sentencing, the judge saw this and was like, ‘You know what? I’ve seen you multiple times before, but there’s a big difference here,” Shafer said.

He said the judge gave him probation in the hopes that he would continue working on himself.

“It really has instilled that sense of self-worth, and it’s really helped me make that cognitive switch of, ‘Hey, I am better than what I was doing,'” he said. “It really emboldened and empowered myself to really start building my career up.”

The food at Ybor is prepped in the kitchen at JTK Cuisine in the Haymarket before going to pop-up events around town.

Radtke said the hope is to build a physical restaurant that can provide full-time work for all the employees.

The kitchen is also working with the Community Corrections Center-Lincoln to provide culinary classes and get inmates food-handling permits before they are released.

The kitchen’s next pop-up is Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Curio on 33rd Street.