Al Podgorski~Chicago Sun-Times

CHICAGO, IL – The New Orleans cuisine truck parked outside Kennedy King College on Tuesday wasn’t just selling red beans and rice, gumbo, shrimp and grits, and other Cajun eats.

Proprietor Tracee Bright, a 38-year-old mother of four and 2010 graduate of the South Side school’s Washburne Culinary Institute, was also selling a dream.

Bright relocated to Chicago two weeks after surviving Hurricane Katrina.

On Aug. 28, 2005, her family followed thousands evacuating New Orleans on a crowded highway to Nashville, arriving in the morning to TV footage of their town underwater.

Losing everything, they sought refuge with family here, bouncing from couch to hotel to shelter, until FEMA offered an apartment. She and husband Patrick struggled to make a go of it, him working for various hotels. Then angels started showing up.

Find the entire article by Maudlyne Ihejirik at The Sun Times <here>