We've featured folks from FoodCorps before (remember David? and Jerusha?) and one thing we love about the program is how far it reaches and how many people it affects. Florita is one of those writers who makes our job pretty easy - just publishing the inspiration she has already spun. Her story reminds us of the most basic component of all those who work at, or toward, a Good Food Job: that there may be setbacks and disappointment and frustration, but this is where we belong.

For those who are interested in trying (for the first time, or once again), the FoodCorps recruitment period is open until March 24th.

When did you know that you wanted to work in food?

I've just always felt right when I was cooking or baking or teaching about cooking and baking. The time I spent getting my undergraduate degree was to prepare me for law school, at the very least to prepare me to work in a law firm.  A little more than halfway through it, when I was too close to finishing to start over, I realized that I belong in a kitchen and not in a courtroom. I finished getting my undergraduate degree in legal studies, figuring I could always go back to school to get involved with cooking, food, and hospitality. After a few heartbreaks, disappointments, and dead ends, I ended up working at a summer camp with children and I really liked teaching kids about food and cooking. No matter what jobs I have had, it has always come back to food, cooking, teaching, and baking for me. The bonus and new-found love is growing food to cook and eat.

How did you get your current good food job?

Oddly enough, I found out about FoodCorps through an Ameri-Corps member, Adam Greenberg, back in 2011. We were both hired to work at the summer camp together (Camp Walt Whitman), and on the van ride from the airport, we were chatting about my love of cooking and food, and he mentioned how FoodCorps might be a great fit. It was too late to apply when I learned about it, so I kept up with application dates and other news for the next term.

How did your previous work or life experience prepare you for a good food job?

I spent two summers working with kids at the camp, and I have always loved cooking and baking, and teaching kids to love food and to connect with it by growing and preparing it just makes sense.  I can't go into a bookstore without heading to the cookbook section or a thrift store or Ross/Marshall'/TJMaxx without looking for a newly discounted kitchen item.  When I look at white dishes, I imagine the things that I will cook to put on those plates or the people who will be eating the food and laughing.  It's how powerful I felt after I made bread for the first time, having taught myself.  It's about how after my great grandmother passed, I made sure to get the mixing bowl she used when I was younger and spent summers with her out in the country, how I'm still on the hunt for her cast iron skillet.  It's about how when I'm in the kitchen, I feel like I belong and that among the frenzy that can sometimes go along with cooking, there's a calmness that reassures me that it's the right place for me to be.  It just is.

What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your Good Food Job dream?

The greatest obstacle wasn't necessarily in pursuing my Good Food Job dream, but my greatest obstacle is some of the work that my job includes. Sometimes, it's hard to communicate my dream and inspire people to see the same things I do. Sometimes, it's hard to get everyone on the same page. There are so many good ideas and goals. The hardest part is getting everyone's ideas and goals together so that all people involved feel like they have a stake and that their contributions are valued.

What can you identify as the greatest opportunities in food right now?

The greatest opportunities in food right now are growing it and cooking with fresh, whole ingredients, as well as teaching others how to grow food and get back to basics in terms of connecting with food, culture, and community.

If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be?

Guitar lessons, watermelon and tomatoes (in season of course), cookbooks, kitchen gadgets, the entire "Monk" series on DVD, and the entire original Nancy Drew Mysteries collection.