In 2017 as I stood outside of the now FreedomWorks Campus, I realized God had brought me back to this property several times over the past eight months. As I entered into the kitchen, God began to reveal the vision He had given to me in 2016, was indeed for this property. My mind was flooded with thoughts of teaching participants basic food preparation, hospitality, ways of engaging in service, a community food shelf, culinary skills and finally, job readiness through a catering and food truck businesses. This was the first vision for the campus, but we had a mammoth mountain to climb in restoring the buildings and the infrastructures needed to support the future 150 participants.
In January of 2019 we moved over the first six men. Today we serve on average, 135 men and 4 women through six residential program models supported by twenty-five staff. In April we launched Phase 1 of this initiative by opening the Bread of Life Food Pantry. Participants are taught the meaning of “Serving” others through community outreaches. By late August, we will have officially launched Phase 2, Hospitality Training, which allows participants the ability to earn gift cards through an incentivized Life Skill training program. In this phase we will teach participants the fundamentals of food handling, food budgeting, and principles from the MN safe serve course.
Our objective is not only to equip and train participants, but to bring forth employment opportunities directly on campus and in the marketplace. President Ronald Regan once said, “The best social program is a Job”. In the fall, FreedomWorks will launch Phase 3 of this Initiative with the inauguration of our culinary arts program and catering business. Graduates of Phases 1&2 will become eligible for part-time employment and selected participants will advance into full-time catering positions preparing them for the marketplace. In 2023 we will initiate Phase 4 with sending food trucks in the marketplace.
To give towards this initiative please click on this Food Initiative link and select Future Culinary Arts & Catering in the drop down where you would like your donation applied too.
