No Ceiling: Francine Pratt

Francine wears many hats. She’s the outgoing director of Prosper Springfield, the executive director of the Missouri College Access Network and the co-owner of Queen City Soul Kitchen. Francine says her love of cooking sparked the concept, along with the opportunity to bring the community together through soul food. Francine says in recent years she’s gone through an identity crisis of sorts, analyzing her childhood and how the themes of race and class impacted her. She says that it wasn’t until she moved to Springfield that she discovered biases within herself, and how coming to terms with those and understanding her identity has shifted her perspective.

On Building Community
“We have everybody coming in there. Every walk of life you can think of. Higher class, lower class, middle class, no class. They’re all respectful and they take the time to talk to each other. And that’s what it’s about.”