New Beginnings

by Lorenzo Spencer

Someone asked me what it was like to be a cook inside a federal penitentiary. First, you have to understand that you’re cooking for anywhere from 600 to 1,000 inmates, then you have to understand that the same inmates you are cooking for you live with. So with that in mind, the food has to be good. What I did was take my grandmother’s recipes and apply them to the recipes I was given. Once the administration saw that you could cook they let you become creative with the menu. This is why I was the most popular guy in the yard using my grandmother’s recipes times 1,000.

I spent half my life in prison, nothing to be proud of, but the fact of the matter is that it happened. If you never spent time in prison, then you wouldn’t understand what I’m about to say. In prison there’s rules. The first rule of survival is that you mind your business. The second rule is that you forget about the outside world. By doing so you learn to cut off all emotions. What I mean by that is that you don’t feel sympathy, empathy, or any other type of feelings for other people. As time goes on you program yourself to function this way to the point where you forget that you are functioning that way. So my point being is when I was released, I was still functioning that way. Meaning that I didn’t have compassion for other people.

So if someone was to ask me, what was the thing I’ve benefited from the most working at Free Food? I’d have to say that it restored my passion. It softened my heart because coming home, I had a hard time. To see firsthand the amount of care and concern and passion that the people of Free Food put into everyday existence restored in me a high degree of not only respect but compassion for the suffering, the needy. Again, just to see the faces of the people who came to eat the food that we cooked and any appreciation that they showed let me know that I had to change my way of thinking. Not that I didn’t care. It’s just that being institutionalized for so long I was conditioned, so working at Free Food restored not just my belief in a higher power, but also my compassion for the needy.

Fast forward to my departure from New York City. I am in the process of obtaining my Commercial Driver’s License and starting my own trucking company. Also, I am spending a lot of time with my grandchildren and I believe Free Food helped me in that aspect also. I am presently residing in South Carolina. Hopefully in the future I will be able to return to New York and spend some time in the Free Food kitchen.

A New York City native from the south side of Jamaica Queens, Lorenzo Spencer was a Housing Works kitchen intern with Free Food Harlem for six weeks. After spending more than 30 years of his life in federal prison, Lorenzo enjoys riding his Harley street glide motorcycle and has plans to start his own trucking company.