CLEVELAND — A food truck based in the Cleveland area prepares more than just tasty meals. They also help serve their community.

Scott Teaman is the executive chef for the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry Metro45 food truck.

The nonprofit food truck provides a way to bring valuable life skills to what Teaman described as an often overlooked population, incarcerated individuals.

The money made from Metro45’s sales goes to the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry Workforce Development Program, which provides inmates with skills they need to get a job in the food and hospitality industry upon their release from jail.

“They come to our office, they work inside the kitchen, they go through the classes, they prep for us, they cook for us, we do catering out of the kitchen, we do catering out of the kitchen, and then when there time is done, they go back and start the next day,” Teaman explained. “We teach the women in the morning and then we teach the men in the afternoon culinary skills so that when they are done, when they get out of prison, we break the cycle of recidivism. So basically, what that means is they are not going to go back to the old ways of what they are doing.”

Teaman said during the program, the inmates get Servesafe certified, and overall, it has been a huge success for its participants.

“They are not going to go back to their old ways of what they were doing and right now, we are at a 93% success rate,” he said.

He said the food truck is vital in funding the Workforce Development Program.

Metro45 also goes to homeless shelters to provide meals for those in need.

There is currently a campaign to purchase a second food truck in the near future, with the hopes of helping even more people.