EVERETT — Brian Simpson is learning to cook for a crowd. With nachos on the lunch menu, he is deep-frying chips made from donated tortillas.
On a mid-August morning, the 33-year-old resident of the Everett Gospel Mission took a break from the kitchen. He talked about circumstances that landed him at the shelter for homeless men, and about a training program he hopes will lead to a better life.
Simpson is a student in the mission’s Feed Hope Kitchen, a hands-on training and job placement program launched nearly two years ago. The aim of the 15-week curriculum is to give graduates the skills needed to get and keep a job in a commercial kitchen.
“I lost my job. My girlfriend and I broke up. I’ve been here about a month,” said Simpson, who in the past has worked in food service and sales.
Instruction isn’t done in a classroom, but in the kitchen of the Everett Gospel Mission Men’s Shelter. About 16,000 meals each month — more than 500 daily — are served at the shelter.
“We’ve had somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 graduates, and as many as nine students at a time,” said Nathan Fox, the Feed Hope Kitchen and food services manager at the Everett Gospel Mission. All but one have been shelter residents, including three graduates from the organization’s women’s shelter.
Some have found jobs through experience earned in the mission’s kitchen. Fox said one man was hired for a food-preparation position at an area casino, and another worked at an espresso cafe in Everett. Other Feed Hope Kitchen graduates have come back as volunteers or staff in the shelter’s kitchen.
“One graduate is a paid intern who cooks here on weekends. And one graduate cooks breakfasts here,” Fox said.
Training covers basic preparation methods for meats, vegetables, stocks, sauces and dressings, along with food safety and sanitation practices. Graduates get a food handler card, and leave with what Fox called “tools of the trade” — a professional quality chef’s knife and paring knife.
“Fifteen weeks can get them one notch up, $2 or $3 up the rung, from a minimum-wage job. It’s hard to live on minimum wage,” said Fox, 40, who was previously a high school teacher. He has also worked in fine dining and fast-food management, and as a saucier and pastry chef.
His students aren’t ready to run a commercial kitchen, “but a job as a prep cook or breakfast cook at a cafe would be very appropriate,” Fox said. “There are more institutional cooking jobs than people know, places like hospitals and assisted-living facilities.”
And the program has done catering jobs for area churches, which students can include on their resumes, Fox said.
Feed Hope Kitchen took as its model FareStart in Seattle. That culinary job training and placement program, which runs a downtown Seattle restaurant, has helped nearly 7,000 people since its start in 1992. The Everett Gospel Mission used a curriculum from Catalyst Kitchens, a nationwide network of similar efforts that includes FareStart.
At the Everett Gospel Mission, kitchen students have ranged in age from 23 to late 50s. “If they’re homeless, they may have no retirement and they don’t have savings,” Fox said.
Before coming to the Everett Gospel Mission about two years ago, Fox said he had no experience with the homeless population. “It has changed my perspective. They’re people just like you and me, but something happened,” he said. That something may have been a job loss, staggering medical bills, addiction or a divorce. “A high percentage of the homeless are veterans,” Fox added.
Simpson, the Feed Hope Kitchen student, said he has worked as a server at high-end restaurants. “I’d like to get a kitchen job — maybe not as a chef, but I like to cook. I never would have imagined myself homeless,” he said.
After talking about the program, Simpson was back in the kitchen, where that day’s nacho lunch included cheese sauce, beef and pork, lettuce, salsa and sour cream. Cooks in the Feed Hope Kitchen don’t strictly follow any recipes.
“We can’t count on what we’re going to get,” Fox said. “Most cooking skills are generalized. If we’re making stew, it might be beef, pork, chicken or lamb. If it’s pork stew, we might put in cans of green chilies.”
Mark Stanfield had finished eating his nachos in the shelter’s dining room. “They’re pretty good — spicy, but pretty good,” said the 61-year-old Stanfield, who was awaiting a veterans housing voucher. His favorite dish from the mission kitchen is mashed potatoes and gravy.
On the mission’s lower level is a large storage pantry, with walk-in refrigerators and freezers. There are cases of canned food from a federal government emergency food program, and shelves of loose cans donated by individuals.
Boxes of meat, donated by Trader Joe’s on the pull date, are immediately used or frozen. Among other major food donors are Food Services of America, Cascade Coffee, Inc., Safeway, Walmart, Pizza Hut, 7-Eleven and Naval Station Everett.
“I’ve found what an amazing community we live in,” Fox said. “We’re really blessed by the generosity of people.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Learn more
Everett Gospel Mission Men’s Shelter houses about 145 men each night, and serves many more at its Day Center.
Everett Gospel Mission Women &Children’s Shelter has bed space for 100 women and children.
The mission offers long-term housing for those who have completed its recovery program.
Information: 425-740-2500 or www.egmission.org/
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