Tammy Jordan
President, Executive Pastry Chef and
Lead Agriculture Instructor, Fruits of Labor, Inc.
MAGGIE HATFIELD
Tammy Jordan, the founder, president
and executive pastry chef of Fruits of
Labor, Inc., was on the road to corporate
success. Her vision was to become the
Martha Stewart of West Virginia. Her
company, Fruits of Labor, Inc., grew most
of its own fruits, vegetables and flowers.
It had a thriving wedding business that
offered catering, floral design, wedding
cake and wedding planning services. She
created the state’s first wedding magazine,
and she produced and hosted one of the
largest bridal shows in the state for several
years. Then, one day, she went to see a
woman she knew who had been sentenced
to Alderson Federal Prison Camp. That
visit changed the course of her life and
her organization.
“While waiting for her to come to the
visitation room, I watched as prisoner
after prisoner circled past the window,”
Jordan recalls. “I noticed the prisoners’
eyes held little hope. For the next couple
of months, I kept coming back to a single
question: did I want to be known across
the state as a wedding corporation or
did I want to be known as someone who
brought hope in a difficult season of
others’ journeys?”
In answering that question, Jordan
watched her corporate dream fade, re-
placed by a far greater mission. She saw
an opportunity to offer people—especially
women—a chance at industry training
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
Photo by Derek Hall.
through her corporation upon re-entry
into society after recovery.
“It has been a journey into places I never
thought possible with outcomes greater
than expected and challenges of mass
proportions,” she says of the endeavor.
Fruits of Labor utilizes its training café,
bakery, mass production kitchen, catering
and conference center and 218-acre ag-
ricultural center to host its two training
programs: Seeds of Recovery, which offers
culinary training for adults in recovery,
and Seeds of Hope, an addiction pre-
vention program that works with at-risk
youth, especially those who are aging out
of the foster care system. The agricultural
center and educational training center
offer a farm-to-table-certified American
Culinary Federation Quality Program.
The programs are free to students, and
graduates can earn up to 11 county, state
and national certificates.
“Our students arrive in a season of the
worst part of their life story, and it is up to
us on a daily basis to reflect, teach and en-
courage so they will reach for the best part
of who we already see them becoming,”
says Jordan. “Our program is a transfor-
mative, integrated impact approach that
creates a multi-tier network to support
adults in recovery efforts and at-risk youth
in prevention efforts. Simply put, if we as
a greater community of healing fail to find
ways to continue to grow the impact, lives