[bizprofile]
Customized Dining by casey jacobus
by the Numbers
F.D.Y., Inc. Provides a Diverse Foodservice Solution
F
loyd D. Young Jr. learned to work hard picking cotton as a boy in Prairie View, Tex., a small town of about 4,000 located 90 miles north of Houston. In Prairie View, school was often delayed starting in the fall until the cotton crop was harvested. “Picking cotton was the hardest work I ever did,” says Young. “You’d pick all day and, if you were lucky, you’d have 300 lbs. and $1.50 at the end of the day.” Young was no stranger to hard work. In high school, he worked for $7 a week, two hours before school, two hours after school and 12 hours on Friday night at a commercial bakery. He learned a lot there about the basics of how a small company operates. He also learned the importance of going to work daily and being on time. After graduating high school, Young attended Prairie View A&M University, the second oldest public institution of higher education in Texas. The historically black university is also known as one of the nation’s top producers of African-American engineers, and has produced more African-American three-star generals than any other historically black university in the country. Young graduated with a degree in industrial education, and then apprenticed as the night baker at a Dallas hotel. Shortly thereafter, he accepted an offer from the Flanner House Community Center in Indianapolis, Ind., to start his career as their food service manager. There Young met Ida Edelen, who was on the staff of Flanner House as a social worker and her 5-year-old nephew Keith Haywood, who was enrolled in the child development center. Before long Young married Keith’s mother and Ida’s sister-in-law, Norma Edelen. During his years in Indianapolis, Young also worked at Eli Lilly Co., the global pharmaceutical giant headquartered there, and taught food services at Indiana State University. In 1969, he was recruited to serve as head of Johnson C. Smith University’s food services and he moved with his wife and stepson to Charlotte. “I thought I was in hog haven,” Young laughs. “I was earning a good salary and Charlotte was a great place to live. Of course, I knew nothing about the city before I got here and thought it was near the ocean. After I got here, I kept looking for the beach and the waves.” Soon after Young got to Charlotte, the food service company he came here to work for was sold. He went to work for a new company, Gourmet Services, now headquartered in Atlanta, for a short time and then, in 1982, struck out on his own as F.D.Y., Inc. (FDY). “I had seen the food industry from the highest to the lowest,” says Young. “I had learned what to do and➤ what not do. I was determined to bring quality food and quality service to the Carolinas.”
june 2012
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