ANNABEL NAGEL is pictured at the entrance of Spark Community Café, where she is now co-general manager and will succeed retiring Kyle Fannin in January. (Photo by Scott White)
The beginnings of Spark Community Café have already been told in these pages. It opened in 2016, having grown out of the Woodford County High School “community activism” class taught by Kyle Fannin, which put on the “Spark: Ignite Downtown Versailles” festival intended to demonstrate the viability of downtown food businesses and respond to food insecurity in the community. Spark’s initial leadership was a small group of class graduates, key community members and Fannin, who has managed Spark Café and its related activities since the beginning. Spark has evolved to not just be a café with a James Beard nominated chef, but a successful caterer while weekly delivering meals to folks. Getting Spark to the point of its current success was no small feat, but as board chair Lori Garkovich points out “a board and its organization needs to have its leadership turnover every three to five years. You want to grow it internally, if possible, which is why you need diversity by age and experience.” Spark, a nonprofit governed by a board, is applying that principal to its day-to-day management. The timing is perfect. Fannin is ready to retire as Spark’s general manager and transition the operation to new management over the next few months. Fannin recognizes that, in addition to Chef Isaiah Screetch, that the next general manager needs to be responsible for the administrative work of the café as well as catering, working with the volunteers who focus on the food insecure, continue the important cultivation of donors, and be the key “front of the house” in the café. Think about it, when was the last time you had lunch at Spark and Kyle wasn’t doing paperwork at his table, filling up drinks, taking an order, running the cash register or just general glad-handing? Garkovich, Chef Isaiah and Fannin soon hit on the perfect candidate, who also happens to be a Woodford Countian, a graduate of the high school’s community activism class who has worked or volunteered at Spark since the beginning: Annabel Nagel. Annabel is well-positioned to work with Chef Isiah and the board in taking Spark to the next level, one which builds on the acclaim of the Beard nomination and the growing catering business – all of which fuels the mission to make a real difference in feeding the food insecure, providing good jobs, and putting dollars into local farmers’ accounts. In high school, Annabel was a self-described “band kid.” She was “required” to join a club by her freshman science teacher and picked Young Democrats – not so much because she was into politics, but the sponsor was her favorite teacher (Fannin). But, she says, “I just fell in love with it and the opportunities to learn about and become engaged in issues important to my community.” She eventually became the statewide president of the Kentucky Young Democrats. Her horizons further expanded when she took the “community activism” class both as a junior and senior where she learned about local issues, needs, and how to effectively organize responses via advocacy and action. Annabel also began volunteering at Spark after the café opened while in high school where she became “committed to its mission and saw how local activism worked.” Deciding to take a “gap year,” she began working full time at Spark and rose to assistant manager. She was also elected the vice chair of the Woodford Democratic Party – the youngest in the state. Annabel had a pretty full plate. Last fall, she enrolled at Transylvania on a full scholarship, but after one semester she realized that she did not need a college degree at this time to do the kind of work for which she felt passionate and found fulfilling so she put college on hold. She also learned another valuable lesson – how to relax and recharge. Backpacking and camping went from family vacations to a mental health elixir. She continued to work at Spark but soon took the deputy campaign manager job in the Agriculture Commissioner race of Sierra Enlow, who won the democratic primary. After the election, she was approached by Garkovich and Fannin about becoming the co-general manager of Spark and a board member. The transition plan jelled: Nagel would begin mentoring with Fannin as co-general manager with input from Chef Isaiah and then take over from Fannin in January 2024. As Garkovich says, “It’s time. I’m excited about Annabel. She has been here from the start; she has the skill set and potential to move into management and customers love her, which in this business is very important.” Fannin adds, “Annabel’s experience is also relevant in the area of fundraising and donor support, which is still about a third of our budget. She is from here, knows a lot of these people, and they respect her.”