Bright Bridge Ministries giving fresh start to men through new culinary program

Gerry Griffith was unemployed, a week sober from alcohol and homeless when he was approached outside his church in Foley, Alabama, about Bright Bridge Ministries.

Six weeks later, after starting the faith-based ministry's Fresh Start program, he is optimistic about life again.

Bright Bridge Ministries is a nonprofit, faith-centered ministry dedicated to providing support and resources to those in need by offering food, recovery services, housing and spiritual guidance. Its new Fresh Start culinary training program introduces students to the world of culinary arts and prepares them to re-enter the workforce.

"It's really been a wonderful program here. I'm very happy with it," Griffith said. "It gives me a fresh start in life, back to a normal life than what I was used to before."

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Programs like Fresh Start lines up with the organization's mission of returning people back into full citizenship from being homeless by making sure they transition with a job so they can be self-sufficient, said Bright Bridge Ministries board member Marcel Davis.

"That's always been our goal as we transition some of our homeless people back into society so that we transfer them back whole where they have a skill that would be beneficial to an employee," Davis said.

Bright Bridge Ministries recently reopened His Place Shelter, a men's transitional housing facility that aims to move men from homelessness or in crisis situations into stable environments, providing accountability, structure and affordable housing to enable them to find security on their own.

The men have two avenues to pursue while in the house: faith-based and life skills courses. The faith-based program includes Alcoholics Anonymous and recovery programs. The life skills program includes courses to increase knowledge in areas such as banking accounts, reading and going back to school.

Food Ministry Director Stanley Donaway felt it was one thing to feed or shelter people who are homeless or down on their luck. What he wanted to do instead was to empower and equip them with the tools to be able to go out, get employment and support themselves and their family.

When interviewing new arrivals about what trades they wanted to learn, he had a conversation with chef Phil Brown who told him about a similar program he taught in St. Augustine at St. Francis Housing Crisis Center and at First Coast Technical College.

Donaway learned more about the program and determined it was a good program to bring into the ministry since it empowers people by taking somebody who's just barely surviving on the street and equipping them with skills to thrive and succeed in life.

"I hope that these guys, in taking the class, they'll be going from being served to serving and it kind of puts them on the other side of the aisle sort or the other side of the counter," Donaway said. "And the satisfaction in being able to hand somebody hungry a plate of food and watch their enjoyment or watch their appreciation."

Fresh Start

Brown had to condense the 18-month class to eight days of four-hour classes. Organizers also had to fundraise for supplies for the class, which currently has six students, to purchase shoes, pants, carving knives and food handling and safety books for each graduate.

The first thing Brown did was work with the men to get a sanitation and food handling certificate so they can go to restaurants and say they are safe food certified.

Throughout the classes, he teaches them basic skills and principles of cooking and identification of different proteins and vegetables, as well as how to put them all together in a presentable way.

The program ends with job search and interview techniques to get their foot in the door and better prepared for an interview.

Brown recites a Bible verse from Matthew 4:19 stating: "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." He hopes what he is giving to these men will help them out for the rest of their lives.

"This is so apropos for the Bright Bridge and also the Fresh Start program because we feed them all the time. They come in the door and they go out the door," Brown said. "But these people are learning how to cook that will feed themselves not only physically but they'll be able to feed themselves as far as getting a good job and continuing on up and becoming a very useful citizen in the Pensacola area."

Prior to entering the program, Griffith had just come back from Pensacola where he was denied a job. With no car, he walked back that Thursday to Foley, which took him two days to complete and arrived back home Saturday.

His spur of the moment decision to attend church the next day, where he was approached about Bright Bridges Ministries, changed his life.

A month and a half later, he feels it was God answering his prayers. The program has helped calm his mind and he enjoys the work so much that he hopes expand it into a career.

"I have no words for it, it was like I was supposed to go back there and meet her I guess because God wanted me to do this," Griffith said. "And I went back there and I met her and here I am back. It's like it's supposed to happen."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Fresh Start is new culinary program to help men re-enter workforce