When Jim walks into the Gospel Rescue Mission kitchen—often as early as 5:00 AM—he isn’t just looking at a prep list; he’s looking at a classroom. As the Kitchen Manager, Jim is responsible for feeding hundreds of people daily, but he views the food as secondary. “I have 30 days or less to teach a person how to get a job and hold a job,” Jim says. “That’s the first step.”
Jim’s background prepared him well for this environment. A former baker aboard the USS Robert E. Peary (FF-1073) in the Navy, he knows the importance of discipline. When residents are assigned to the kitchen, they aren’t just cooking; they are learning the building blocks of employment.
“A lot of these guys, even guys that are 40 or 50 years old, have never had a job—I mean a Social Security type of job,” Jim explains. He notes that while some may have done day labor, many lack experience with daily supervision or structure. His goal is to instill the fundamentals: showing up on time, communicating effectively, following directions, working as a team, and cleaning up after themselves.
Running a commercial kitchen that relies on donations requires more than just logistics; it requires faith. Jim vividly recalls one year when the Mission failed to receive its usual donation of a cow from the County Fair. It was a significant loss, leaving the kitchen facing a serious meat shortage for the coming year.
Concerned, Jim went to his supervisor, Brian, to break the bad news. Brian’s response wasn’t to panic, but to pause. “Let’s pray,” he said. Together, they asked God to provide.
The answer didn’t take weeks or even days. It was waiting for Jim by the time he walked back downstairs.
“I went back down to the kitchen to unlock my door, and there was a little note sticking there: Call Steve!!,” Jim says. He dialed the number, and the voice on the other end offered something far better than the single cow they had missed out on. Steve asked if the Mission could use some hamburger—specifically, 74 forty-pound cases of it.
In a matter of minutes, the kitchen had gone from having zero beef to nearly 3,000 pounds of it! Stunned by the immediate and overwhelming result, Jim could only reply, “I just prayed on this a minute ago!”
For Jim, the “freedom” of the Mission—the freedom to pray and read the Bible at work—is what keeps him going. He sees the kitchen as a place where daily needs are met not just by shopping, but by reliance on God. “All too often I’ll knee-jerk and go buy milk, and when I get back, a guy just brought ten gallons,” he laughs. I think the Lord wanted to show me that all I have to do is pray.” For Jim, the kitchen is where men take their ‘first step into success’—restoring their dignity one meal at a time.
