At Revival Chili, we have dedicated ourselves to perfecting TRUE chili, one that is rich, complex, and WITHOUT BEANS (save for our vegan chili, of course). We travel to different events, festivals, and other locations in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

But even for us, it’s about more than just the chili: it’s about creating job opportunities for disadvantaged individuals who are often overlooked by employers for any number of reasons.

When Jordan Robarge, the founder of Revival Chili, was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, he, like many of his peers, enjoyed going to parties.  Also like many of his peers, he enjoyed drinking at such gatherings. Unfortunately, he was arrested on one of these nights while walking home, for at the time he was underage. He thought nothing of it, since it was a small misdemeanor – hardly even a crime.

A few years later after graduating and applying for jobs ad infinitum, he was interviewing for what he imagined was a dream job. He had impressed his prospective employer in each of his two interviews, so he figured he was a shoo-in. But, as fate would have it, that collegiate blunder showed up in his background check, ultimately costing him his dream job.

When Revival Chili was founded in October of 2016, Jordan dedicated himself to giving others a second chance. At first, we focused on exclusively hiring reentering citizens for our food truck in order to reduce local rates of recidivism and to give hope to what we believe is the most overlooked group of people in the nation.

But after a year of operating, we asked to ourselves, “Why stop there? Why not hire other disadvantaged individuals? ” We had come to the realization that focusing on only hiring reentering citizens was excluding other groups of disadvantaged people from employment (e.g. veterans and homeless people).

With that being said, we are proud to announce that Revival Chili is now using an open hiring model and will no longer limit ourselves to helping a single demographic. If you want a job, contact us and we will put your name on a list. Once we cross out your name, we will call you to conduct a brief interview and, barring conflicts of schedule, we will then offer you job. We promise not to do background check or require multiple references. It’s really is as simple as putting your name on a piece of paper.

Furthermore, each new employee will not only receive training in customer service, food handling and safety, but they will also be taught financial planning and will be given entrepreneurial training in a classroom setting. This is an effort to make their employment here truly life-changing, as Revival Chili pledges to help each employee launch their own food truck or business.