Muhammad Abdul-Hadi

Owner & Founder - Down North Pizza | Founder - Down North Foundation | James Beard Award Winner | Social Reform Advocate & Practitioner | Author

Muhammad Abdul-Hadi is the founder and owner of Down North Pizza, a mission-driven restaurant that exclusively hires formerly incarcerated individuals and serves up pies with a purpose in Philadelphia. Leveraging his academic background in criminal justice and experiences as an entrepreneur, Muhammad embarked on a path to reimagine a business leader’s role in supporting underserved communities. Through fair wages, innovative hiring practices, and community building, he is on a mission to help reduce recidivism rates across the city of Philadelphia and beyond. A West Philly native, Abdul-Hadi is no stranger to the effects of the prison industrial system in his neighborhood. “What drives me is creating opportunities for the people around me and giving them the tools and resources to succeed. We’re building a revolution for the people by looking to advance everyone, particularly the formerly incarcerated, so we can shatter glass ceilings.” This year, Muhammad’s outstanding contributions earned him The James Beard Foundation’s 2024 Leadership Award, recognizing achievement by individuals actively working to set standards that create more equitable, just, sustainable, and economically viable food systems. Until recently, Muhammad also sat on The James Beard Foundation’s Legacy Network Cohort, an honor bestowed upon emerging leaders in the culinary industry. Muhammad is the founder of Down North Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on community development, education, and improvement. His latest initiative includes the Down North Treehouse, a communal space built from a refurbished library, aiming to address the school-to-prison pipeline by empowering students to find purposeful and financially rewarding careers in the tech sector. Muhammad hopes to spread the mission of Down North throughout the country, uplifting similar communities by addressing the barrier to success through employment opportunities and neighborhood initiatives.

ACCOLADES

● Recipient of the 2024 James Beard Leadership Award

● Advisor for the James Beard Foundation’s 2023-2024 Legacy Network Cohort

● Robert Wood Johnson Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Fellow

● Awarded New York Time’s 50 Best Restaurants in America 2021

● Awarded Bon Appetit’s Head of the Table 2021