Chef Shanita McAfee

Award Winning Chef
Executive Director & Founder

Chef Shanita McAfee is a Kansas City–born chef, social entrepreneur, and founder of The Prospect KC. She built the organization out of her lived experience in kitchens and communities where talent was abundant, but opportunity was not. After years in professional kitchens, owning her own restaurant, and competing on Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen,” she turned her focus from individual success to collective impact.

In 2019, Chef Shanita launched The Prospect KC to confront food apartheid and create real pathways to stability on Kansas City’s Eastside. Her model connects restaurant-quality food, hands-on culinary job training, and wraparound support so every meal served is also an investment in someone’s future. At the core of her leadership is a simple commitment: lead with dignity, demand excellence, and make sure the people most affected by inequity are at the center of the solutions.