Ground-Breaking Social Enterprise
Meet Chef Shanita McAfee-Bryant
Chef Shanita is a Kansas City native and a civic-minded chef eager to transform the lives of community members on the Eastside neighborhoods through food-based solutions: nutrition education, kitchen culinary training and culinary entrepreneurship.
She fell in love with cooking as a teen and went on to receive her professional culinary training at Johnson County Community College. She created and owned a restaurant and competed on The Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen.”
In 2019, Shanita founded The Prospect KC, a social enterprise designed to address systemic inequities, caused by food apartheid, including food insecurity, unemployment and housing instability by providing workforce development, including case management, skill management, financial and nutrition education, childcare and job training.
Shanita is a board member with Harvesters, the Greater KC Food Policy Coalition and Lazarus Ministries KC. She has attended a James Beard Foundation’s Chef Bootcamp for Policy and Change and the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, the first such gathering in more than half a century, at the invitation of U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver.
Award Winning Chef
Executive Director & Founder
The Prospect KC
Founded in 2019 by award-winning chef, Kansas City native, and community activist Shanita McAfee-Bryant, The Prospect KC provides high-impact solutions to food insecurity, economic inequality, and workforce development. Based in Kansas City’s Third District, we serve as a vital resource for residents, businesses, and organizations dedicated to building a stronger, more equitable future. Through culinary training, community engagement, and accessible meals, we create sustainable opportunities for individuals and families to thrive.
Our Mission
We are dedicated to empowering individuals through the innovative use of food as a tool for social change, increasing access to healthy and nutritious food, and addressing food insecurity within our communities. We commit to providing educational resources to foster healthy eating habits, rescuing fresh local food, and preparing nutritious meals. Through our workforce development initiative, we integrate comprehensive support services with education, job training, apprenticeships, and opportunities in employment and entrepreneurship.
Our mission is to equip men, women, and youth with transferable skills that enhance their lives, families, and communities, tackling the root causes of generational poverty and hunger head-on.
The Prospect KC: Empowering Communities Through Food, Education, and Opportunity
Our Programs
Food Access – Nourish KC Community Kitchen & The Daily Pantry
Our community kitchen prepares fresh, nutritious meals daily using rescued food from partners like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. The Daily Pantry offers essential items—dry goods, canned foods, and fresh produce—empowering families to prepare healthy meals at home. Through our Food Redistribution Network, we collaborate with local pantries to extend access to nutritious ingredients across the community.
Nutritional Literacy – "Nourish U" Online Education Platform
The Nourish U platform offers cooking classes, live demonstrations, and instructional videos to teach individuals how to prepare healthy meals using commonly available ingredients. In partnership with pantry networks, we provide recipes and nutrition guides that empower families to make informed food choices and build lifelong healthy habits.
Workforce Development – Culinary Futures Program
The 16-week Culinary Futures program combines hands-on training with coursework accredited through MCC, providing participants with culinary skills and college credits. Trainees gain real-world experience preparing meals for the community while honing essential kitchen management skills. Our program integrates support services—including job placement, financial literacy workshops, and mental health resources—to promote long-term success and stability.
Employment-Focused Social Enterprises
Graduates of our training programs can continue their career journeys through our employment-focused social enterprises. The Prospect KC Catering provides hands-on event management experience while generating revenue to sustain our mission. Additionally, The Nook Coffee Shop and The Benton Bed and Breakfast offer on-the-job training and employment opportunities, promoting career growth and entrepreneurship.
We empower individuals by using food as a tool for social change, increasing access to healthy, nutritious food, and addressing food insecurity. Our commitment includes providing education on healthy eating, rescuing fresh local food, and preparing balanced meals.
Through our workforce development programs, we combine job training, apprenticeships, and support services to equip men, women, and youth with skills that strengthen their lives and communities, tackling the root causes of poverty and hunger.
The Mission
The Prospect KC serves as an umbrella to support Prospects through food-based solutions: nutrition education, culinary training and culinary entrepreneurship.
The Vision
Core Values
Accountability
We drive impact, work in collaboration, and deliver meaningful outcomes with honesty, fairness, and transparency.
Generosity
We believe in being open, patient, accepting, respectful, and giving without expectation.
Access
Getting the individual and family access. Socioeconomic state should not determine access to food.
Empower
Safe and affirming environment to foster security, innovation, and growth.
Community
We nurture connections that lead to sustainable and impactful change.
Creating Lasting Change
Our Initiatives
The Prospect KC plans to serve 150 women, 215 youth, 80 unhoused and 150 housed but impoverished students and serve at least a million meals by 2025.
Our Funding/ Partners
Our efforts are designed to support members of disenfranchised communities at or below the federal poverty line in the Kansas City metro area.
We receive generous funding from individual donors, foundations, corporations, and the government. The Prospect KC’s major funders include grants from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Hall Family Foundation, and the Community Capital Fund.
We also work with a network of social service agencies to provide wraparound services to help our Prospects succeed.
The Ripple Effect
Our Prospects are capable, competent, and eager to overcome. With new abilities and the chance to change their life story, the Prospects become part of the solution — together with The Prospect KC’s community partners and donors.
While a Prospect’s growth is a lifelong transformation, success begins the first day they prepare a meal for the most vulnerable and hungry in our community. Each day on the job builds more confidence, self-reliance and hope for graduates who possess the skills to keep a job.
Become A Supporter
Individual Giving: Join Our Coffee For A Cause Community!
Meet Our Team
Corporate Giving: Culinary Collaborators Alliance
Connect with the passionate individuals driving our mission forward. Our dedicated team brings diverse expertise and unwavering commitment to every thing we do.
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Shanita McAfee-Bryant
Founder & Executive Director (she/her)
Contact: operations@theprospectkc.org
Chef Shanita is a Kansas City native and a civic-minded chef eager to transform the lives of those suffering from food apartheid in Eastside neighborhoods by creating food-based solutions addressing food insecurity, nutrition education and culinary job training. She fell in love with cooking as a teen and went on to receive her professional culinary training at Johnson County Community College. She created and owned a restaurant and competed on The Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen.”
In 2019, Chef Shanita founded The Prospect KC, a social enterprise designed to address food apartheid, a racist and oppressive system that creates inequitable food systems by addressing food insecurity, nutrition education and culinary job training.
Chef Shanita is a board member for Harvesters, Kansas City’s food bank, serving 26 counties and more than 800 agencies, and a board member of the Greater KC Food Policy Coalition, NourishKC and Lazarus Ministries KC.
She was selected to attend the James Beard Foundation’s Chef Bootcamp for Policy and Change, a unique opportunity for civically and politically minded chefs to mobilize the support for policy decisions that impact our food system. In October 2022, Chef Shanita attended the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, the first such gathering in more than half a century, at the invitation of U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver.
Additionally, she was selected for the new Launch KC Social Venture Studio, which offers professional support, grant awards, and network connections designed to strengthen individual business concepts.
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Astin McAfee
Director of Operations & Catering Manager (she/her)
Contact: operations@theprospectkc.org
Astin McAfee believes in the power of food to bring people together and create a true sense of belonging. As Director of Operations and Catering Manager at The Prospect KC, she works at the intersection of hospitality, community impact, and organizational strategy—ensuring every event and initiative reflects the mission of transformation and inclusion.
With a background in communications from Pittsburg State University, Astin blends storytelling, logistics, and leadership with intention. Her leadership style is tactful, empathetic, and resourceful, guided by the Dalai Lama’s words: “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
Astin has played a key role in The Prospect’s growth, most notably organizing the 2022 Inaugural Gumbo Fest—now one of the organization’s signature events. Chef Shanita fondly recalls: “Born to parents who are chefs, Astin was helping mom run her first restaurant at the ripe old age of 16! Few people know this, but Astin is also the creator of my signature red velvet waffle.”
Astin is driven by the joy of working with all kinds of people and by the vision of creating a “third space”—a place where food, community, and compassion meet.
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Gabrielle “Gabby” Lowe
Resource Coordinator (she/her)
Contact: resources@theprospectkc.org
Gabby is a Kansas City native who has a passion for proactive social support and spreading kindness. After earning a Master of Social Work, Gabby spent 11 years in the field gaining a wealth of experience in various social service systems across the metro area. Her roles included child abuse/neglect investigator, adult mental health therapist, nursing home director of social services, elementary school special education group facilitator, and oncology care social worker in both inpatient discharge planning and outpatient clinic resource coordination. “When I’m not at work, I can be found exploring Kansas City, and enjoying sunny days and good music on my patio,” she says.
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Patricia "Pat" Flucas
Program Director (she/her)
Contact: patricia@theprospectkc.org
At The Prospect KC, our Prospects—the culinary trainees who come through our doors find guidance, structure, and heart in Patricia Flucas, our Program Director. A former field operator in the U.S. Marine Corps, Patricia brings the same discipline and care to her work in community development as she once did in service. Her favorite post during her military career was Okinawa, Japan, but she returned to Kansas City to be near family including her adult daughter and found her calling in workforce development and hospitality training.
Before joining The Prospect KC, Patricia worked at QuikTrip and KC Daiquiri Shop. She also honed a lifelong love for baking, passed down from her great-grandmother. Even now, baking is her go-to when she needs to unwind. At The Spot, she helped shape our in-house bakeshop and loves teaching the art of cookie-making to new trainees especially because, as she says, “a good chocolate chip cookie can instantly take you back to childhood.” (Though she’s partial to peanut butter herself.)
Patricia has a big heart for service. She sits on the board of the Transitions for Life Foundation, which supports veterans, the unhoused, and adults returning to the workforce. She's also a proud member of the Order of the Eastern Star. A dedicated student of history, she finds peace and perspective in biographies from Queen Victoria to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “If you want to escape,” she says, “just pick up a good book. I love to learn about other people and what makes them tick.”