CINCINNATI — Ali Rizvi circles the middle school parking lot, smiling and shaking his head.
“I usually try to get here before dismissal,” Rizvi said.
We stop and look around, then drive out the exit and back through the entrance again. He repeats himself.
“I usually try to get here before dismissal,” Rizvi said.
It won't be the last time he says this. The Cincinnati Public Schools' social worker is trying to find his students. He calls one of them, and he's not smiling anymore.
"Go get your brother," Rizvi said.
A few minutes later, a 12 and 13-year-old jump in the car. Rizvi's taking them to an old Frisch’s Big Boy. They call it the Garden of Joy. It’s a free after-school program where middle school and high school students learn how to cook.
But I quickly see it's about much more than that.
Go inside the kitchen with them the video below:
The boys in the backseat have been coming here since the first summer camp last year. One of them hands Rizvi a paper from school, and the social worker reads it out loud.
“Gifted resources for your child,” Rizvi said.
He hands it to Ralph, who hands it right back to him and tells him to read the whole thing.
“Congratulations, man,” Rizvi said. “That means you’re talented. That means you’re extra talented.”
Then, he stops to make the boys put their seat belts on. Inside the restaurant in Clifton, Ralph drums on top of a booth with metal sticks. He tells me he was 4 when he first began drumming using pots and pans.
“I want to be a drum major in college,” Ralph said. “There’s a lot of things you can do for your career instead of being in the street."
He tells me he likes cooking because there are so many things to learn. It's better than breaking into cars and shooting guns. I ask him if he knows people who do that, and he nods.
"Some people," Ralph said. "Some of my friends."
It's why he's here. It's why this place exists at all.
Because Rizvi knew he had to do something after an 11-year-old boy was shot and killed in the West End in 2023. In the aftermath, Rizvi tells me he remembers the mayor visiting his school. And he remembers almost all of the students raising their hands when asked if they'd been impacted by gun violence.
Flash forward to February, and Rizvi passes out a piece of paper with dozens of emotions listed on it. Everyone is sitting in a circle.
“Good afternoon,” Rizvi said. “Today, we’re going to talk about anger.”
He tells the kids to breathe. And then he tells them deep breathing is one of the best ways to deal with anger. Some of them participate. Some of them don't.
In the kitchen, students use knives to smash garlic into a marinade for chicken. Dominic Bley helps them.
“Life is hard,” Bley said. "Especially being a kid in Cincinnati."
The culinary director learned how to cook because of his father. And when he died, Bley tells me he was lost. But it’s part of the reason he ended up here, trying to help kids deal with their own pain — whatever that might be.
"Community is such an important thing," Bley said.
When I visit, they make banh mi, a Vietnamese sandwich several students have difficulty pronouncing. And once it gets dark outside, they all sit down and eat together.
Like a family.
