Last Wednesday, Aug. 13, staff of EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute arrived at Grafton Correctional Institution’s vegetable garden—normally used for growing produce to stock Catholic Charities’ shelters and food pantries—and transformed the space into the setting for an elaborate five-course Grafton Garden Dinner prepared and served by the Grafton incarcerated individuals who are participating in EDWINS’ reentry and culinary arts program.

Under the guidance of Brandon Chrostowski, EDWINS founder and CEO, and 2025 James Beard Foundation Impact Award winner,  the event showcased the culinary skills of students, as well their dedication to cultivating the ingredients. Every vegetable served was grown and tended by inmates in the Grafton Correctional garden.

EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute founder and CEO Brandon ChrostowskiEvery day, participants in the prison’s horticulture program water the crops of the approximately one-acre garden by hand, carrying two-gallon buckets back and forth from the water spigot to the garden beds.

“There are only six of us that take care of this entire garden,” explained EDWINS student Efrain Paniagua-Billa. “We didn’t have any experience… we all kind of learn as we go, information gets passed on.”

As guests were seated for last Wednesday’s dinner and a look at where the EDWINS mission began, Chrostowski emphasized the evening’s focus.

“Tonight we are not celebrating ourselves,” he told the group, “we are celebrating this garden [and] these vegetables, [which] these men hand-water to produce this wonderful meal.”

The sold-out dinner drew 72 diners, including EDWINS alumni with their families, supporters from the community, and staff from Grafton Correctional Institution.

“We support EDWINS, and we believe in its mission,” said Cheryle Mackie of Highland Heights. “He believes in human beings and giving them all a second chance.”

EDWINS Grafton Garden DinnerThe elevated farm-to-table cuisine included Loup de Mer fish with zucchini, squash, and sauce veregette, roasted veal loin with carrots, onions, and chive cream sauce, and roasted corn flan with candied popcorn, whipped cream, and candied basil leaf.

Grafton Correctional warden Jerry Spatny attended the event and praised the long-standing partnership between the institution and EDWINS. “We’ve had a relationship with Brandon for nearly 15 years,” he said. “This is what hope is all about.”

Throughout the evening, the incarcerated EDWINS students worked the event with the precision of a fine dining establishment—clearing plates, changing cutlery, serving non-alcoholic cocktails, and refilling water glasses.

One student who was working addressed the diners. “Thank you so much for coming tonight,” he said. “It’s wonderful to be with family, friends, and those who support our efforts to better ourselves.”

Another student also expressed his emotions. "I feel so privileged to partake in this program,” he told the group. “I thank all of you for coming. It gave me a sense of feeling normal again.”

Chrostowski founded EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute in 2007. The Culinary Institute of America graduate was inspired to create a hands-on training restaurant for formerly-incarcerated individuals after he spent some time in prison and received help getting back on his feet.

Since opening the Shaker Square restaurant in 2013, Chrostowski has graduated 645 students from EDWINS, with 95% of the graduates successfully finding jobs and only a 2% recidivism rate. Additionally, the EDWINS curriculum is available in all 30 Ohio prisons and on more than 400,000 tablets throughout the country. More than 24,000 incarcerated adults have completed the program.

After the EDWINS restaurant opened, Chrostowski began building the EDWINS Second Chance Life Skills Center at South Moreland Boulevard and Buckeye Road, which was completed in August 2016.

Then, after adding a bakery and butcher shop to the Second Chance Life Skills Center, Chrostowski bought two duplex homes in the Buckeye neighborhood in 2020 to use as family housing, and bought a third house for students and alumni on South Moreland in 2021, opened daycare center. All of the housing is fully occupied today.

He has also opened a daycare center for employees with children, launched a gun buyback program, online cooking classes, traveled the world feeding refugees in places like Ukraine and Djibouti, Africa.

And, earlier this year, Chrostowski moved EDWINS restaurant from Shaker Square to the former Nighttown space on Cedar Hill in Cleveland Heights.

At the pace Chrostowski keeps, he says he plans to expand the Grafton Garden Dinner next year to further raise awareness of the EDWINS’ programs.

Diner Mackie said she admires Chrostowski’s efforts. “It’s a program of hope. In today’s world, don’t we need that?”

As the evening came to a close, guests were escorted from the garden and led through the facility exit with the sun setting over the expansive garden.