11 minute read
PROFILE: Tracie Hodson advocates for domestic violence victims at FavorHouse
profile Tracie Hodson
Advocating for domestic violence victims feeds the FavorHouse Director’s soul
By Allison McCrory
When Tracie Hodson took over the helm of FavorHouse of Northwest Florida, it was like returning home.
“I am the daughter of a survivor,” explained Hodson, who, unlike many children of abused parents, fortunately did not grow up witnessing the emotional and physical abuse.
Yet the effect was so profound when she discovered the ugly truth at age 22 that it forged her life mission.
About to graduate college, Hodson sent her mother, who lived 2,200 miles away, a plane ticket to attend her graduation and her sister’s high school graduation, just days apart. Her mother flew to her daughters’ celebrations, never returning to Arizona.
For the first time Hodson’s mother revealed her isolated, beaten-down life to her daughters. Her abuser inflicted physical abuse that once resulted in a trip to the emergency room due to injuries from a baseball bat. And there was the more insidious emotional abuse. In triangulating abuser fashion, the abuser used her daughters as tools against her, telling her they did not want to see her. Like a wild animal, separating and isolating made his prey more vulnerable.
When Hodson discovered the ugly secret at age 22, her life mission was crystal clear. And she was irate.
“Even though I wasn’t there to experience it, like some of the kids do that are coming through our programs, and I was in my ’20s when I learned about it, it still had such a deep and profound impact that somebody thought they had the right to treat my mother that way, that they thought they had the right to use my sister and me as a weapon.”
Photo by Kate Treick Photography
A PATH TO HER CALLING
That fire to strengthen the vulnerable continually simmered as Hodson worked other non-profit jobs throughout her career. But domestic violence advocacy is the siren song that kept calling her back.
Her early years in the non-profit world were at a retirement community as well as a women’s and children’s program. She poured herself into an Indiana
domestic violence shelter, working 50- and 60-hour weeks leading a capital campaign that tripled the shelter’s capacity.
Exhausted, she bowed out of social service briefly to work for a theater. Then one frigid day in 2018, her husband out of town, Hodson was sitting home alone in Indiana when an epiphany struck.
“We had three days of negative 50 degrees. So, I called him up and he was in Las Vegas or something – it was sunny, it was 70 wherever he was and I’m like, well it’s frigid here. I was sitting in front of the fireplace, I had three blankets on, I had the dogs with me, I had the heat turned up, frozen water pipes, it was awful. So, I told him, ‘I don’t know why I’m here. Our kids are graduated, you’re on the road.’ I told him, ‘next job offer I get, I’m out.’”
And many job applications later, she was! WSRE hired Hodson as their director of development and she moved into the Lillian, AL, home purchased from her grandparents years before. She worked at WSRE from 2019 until June when she replaced long-time FavorHouse executive director Sue Hand, who passed away a year before.
While she enjoyed her job leading fundraising for honest, accurate news programming as well as excellent children’s shows and more, there was always a missing piece.
“I liked what I did but I realized that for all that I liked I was missing something. I’ve dedicated my career to the non-profit world. I have been either in the fundraising aspect and/or the executive management aspect since I graduated college. I have provided services for older adults, I have provided services for pregnant women and babies, I have provided services for domestic violence victims and of course public television.”
Despite the worthiness of the causes, Hodson’s life mission was still calling.
“When I stopped doing social services, there’s a difference in the way my soul feels. When I come to work and I know what I did today made a difference and that it’s directly helping to change, save, make a difference in somebody’s life, the social worker in me was really struggling with not having that direct connection.”
RETURNING HOME
So stepping back into domestic violence advocacy was answering a call for a problem much more common than most realize.
With one in three people harmed by intimate partner abuse and one in four experiencing severe physical abuse, Hodson pointed out that it is statistically impossible to not know an abuse victim.
Healing from the confusion that someone professing love is an abuser is a process.
“A victim will leave seven to nine times before they leave for good, statistically. And so it’s not unusual for someone to come through our program and leave for a while and then come back. But each time they come back we give them different help because they’re in a different spot in their journey.”
The joy of her job is witnessing new life emerging from destruction.
“When you finally see somebody when they came in, they were broken and they were at the end of their rope and they felt like they had no choices, and when you start to watch them grow,” she said. “I get to see the woman who came in here the first time a complete and total mess and then each time she comes to see the counselor she’s a little stronger and she’s putting pieces together.”
Those kinds of rebirths are Hodson’s payoff for answering her life’s calling.
“This environment, this job, this mission, in particular, I feel led and like this is supposed to be my job, not FavorHouse specifically, but being an advocate for domestic violence victims.I tell a lot of people, you can run from what God wants you to do but he’s going to find a way to get you back into that anyway so you might as well embrace it.”
— Tracie Hodson
food & drink DINNER DOLDRUMS
Is it time to change your routine?
By Liz Biggs
To cook, or not to cook, that is the question. Followed by the even more difficult question – what to cook?
Menu planning and grocery shopping can be time consuming and tedious. And not very gratifying when your family says, “Not spaghetti again!”
Maybe it’s time to shake up your weekly meal planning routine and try something new and different.
HOME CHEF
East Hill resident Brenda Mader loves to cook. She used to start from scratch every night, but to break up the routine, about five years ago she started having Home Chef meal kits delivered two to three times per week.
“Their weekly menu is varied and diverse,” Mader said. “It’s pretty easy to eat healthy with these meal kits: low carb, heart healthy, gluten free and meatless options are available. The produce is always fresh and high quality, and the meats and fish are excellent, too. You can also be very indulgent with some of the meals, too. I have gotten great ideas on what to make for dinner parties based on a meal for two that arrived for me and my husband.”
According to Mader, the Home Chef app is easy to use if you want to skip a week or change a meal if what’s been pre-selected isn’t what you want.
Some of her favorite meals are: Scallop Lemon Parmesan Risotto, the Korean Fried Chicken with Edamame Rice and any of their lettuce wraps.
GREEN CHEF
Pensacola Beach resident Katy Thompson has three Green Chef meal kits delivered per week and skips every other week.
WHERE TO SHOP
• Clean Eatz, 800 North Navy Blvd., Pensacola; 850-741-4900; cleaneatz.com
• Apple Market, 1021 Scenic Hwy., Pensacola; 850-433-4381; applemarketpensacola.com
• Home Chef, homechef.com • Green Chef, greenchef.com • HelloFresh, hellofresh.com
“In general, I like using these meal kits because as a single person living alone, I find that I waste food as the quantity of what I need to buy versus what I need for cooking is vastly different, so it spoils,” Thompson said. “Also, I like the idea of cooking rather than warming up, but not having to overthink recipes. And I love having leftovers for lunch the next day.”
She likes the low carb options and feels the cooking steps are a bit simpler than some of the other meal kit delivery services she has tried.
HELLOFRESH
Eric Biggs, a Pensacola native who lives and works in Houston, has subscribed to HelloFresh for two years because it is convenient and keeps him out of the grocery store.
“Every Sunday I receive a neatly packed box on my doorstep with exactly what I want, and boom, my fridge is stocked for the week,” Biggs said.
He likes the varied choices and simple instructions.
“It is easy to cook something that I would have never made from scratch for myself, such as curry, ramen and shawarma. Over time, I have learned techniques that have made me a more cultured and capable cook.”
Before HelloFresh, he would buy ingredients to prepare meals and eat the same thing throughout the week.
“Plain and boring – no razzle dazzle. No mushroom cream sauce over steak and potatoes, no apple rosemary pan sauce over pork chops, no ‘with a kick.’ This service elevates every meal to make cooking interesting and delicious,” Biggs added.
CLEAN EATZ
The meal kit companies listed above are not local. If you are looking to love it local, Clean Eatz is your go-to meal plan place. Located at 800 Navy Boulevard, all meals are made in store.
“Where health food meets fast food,” is how owner Sam
Photos by Kate Treick Photography Owner Sam Poppell says Clean Eatz is “where health food meets fast food.”
Find Out How We Are Making
HOMEOWNERSHIP AFFORDABLE
Out of the Box Realty www.RealtyOutOfTheBox.com Email: Info@RealtyOutOfTheBox.com Phone: 888-687-9153 P.O. Box 1242 | Gulf Breeze, FL 32562
Poppell describes Clean Eatz.
Poppell started out as a customer and loved it so much he ended up buying the store. He has lost 172 pounds by sticking to the Clean Eatz meal plan. His amazing before and after photos can be seen on the website.
“Clean Eatz is ideal for someone who has not necessarily eaten healthy before but wants to make a positive change – like I can’t keep eating French fries all the time, I need some healthier options,” Poppell said.
Clean Eatz is a dine-in café featuring a menu that includes burgers, wraps, bowls, flatbreads, sides and smoothies. Inside the café is an impressive freezer case that houses the Grab ‘N’ Go meals. These individually portioned meals can be heated in the microwave, stove or oven. Meals should be stored in the freezer and come with a six-month shelf life. The Grab ‘N’ Go freezer case has 70 different selections including these favorites: Philly Cheese Steak Pasta, Salsa Verde Chicken Fajitas, Pot Roast and Pineapple Chicken.
In addition to the café and Grab ‘N’ Go selections, Clean Eatz offers a weekly meal plan with no subscription, no obligation and no minimum order. Six fresh meals are available every week. The menus can be viewed and orders can be placed online. Meals can be picked up between Sunday and Tuesday. If meals are not eaten by Friday, they can be frozen. Meals are priced between $6 and $10, depending on how many are ordered. Price break information is available online. Some meal plan favorites are the Queso Beef Bowl, Bourbon Chicken Mac & Cheese, Kickin’ BBQ Baked Shrimp and Chicken Spaghetti.
APPLE MARKET
If you can’t make it over to the West side, David Apple always has dinner cooked for you on the East side of town. Located on Scenic Highway, the Apple Market deli serves up delicious homemade comfort food seven days a week.
To cook, or not to cook? With all these options, it’s a tough decision!
My Green Chef EXPERIENCE
To help me write this story, I subscribed to Green Chef for three weeks. My daughter loved coming home to find a package on our doorstep – it was like a big present. Some of the recipes had a lot of steps, but nothing we couldn’t handle. The food quality, flavor and presentation were excellent. The meals were delicious and portions were generous. I learned what to do with dates, fennel and lacinato kale and I especially loved the soups!
But I cancelled. Why? It’s expensive.
When the introductory promo code deal expired, I couldn’t justify the cost. Convenience is the reason most people subscribe, but I have a Publix less than a mile away and I go there at least twice a week anyway. Also, I learned the hard way that you have to select your meals a week in advance. I missed the meal selection deadline and got auto-shipped pork and shrimp meals.
But mostly, I don’t like following directions or recipes. I’m more of a creative cook and like to wing it.
I may subscribe again at a later date to shake things up, but for now it’s back to Mom’s spaghetti on Mondays.
— Liz Biggs
