Success Stories:

 

Maria Fernandez

500th Graduate

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Oliver's Kitchen is proud to announce our 500th student to graduate the program! Congratulations to Maria and to all the past, present, and future graduates of the program. We look forward to 500 more in the coming years!

John Kimbrough

A Work in Progress

The figure is startling! John claims to have spent nearly a million dollars on cocaine and crack cocaine.

Your reaction is the same as everyones... "That simply isn't possible!" But, consider the facts. John Kimbrough is 42 years old. He has been working for more than 25 years. He had spent nearly every dollar he'd ever made on drugs. $40,000 a year is entirely possible when you have a serious problem.

John, who was born in Mississippi and raised in Oakland, California and Chicago, is one of four children. His parents divorced before he, his mother, and his sister moved to Chicago. John went to a number of schools and dropped out of Crane High School in the 11th grade.

Without a high school diploma, John’s career path led nowhere. He worked as a construction laborer, as a mover’s helper in the moving industry, as a truck driver, and even one job that called for hanging dead chickens on hooks in a meat processing plant.

By the time he was 20, John’s life had developed a simple pattern that could have easily consumed his entire life. He would hop from job to job, and stay with friends or relatives; he was earning enough to buy the cocaine he was now smoking daily.

There was a shining light of hope at one point in his life. John was clean for a year and a half. He made the decision to kick his habit, and to get his life back on track. There was one problem... he had no catalyst to turn his life around. He went back to his addiction. An overdose left him unconscious on the floor of a friend’s apartment, and when he finally awoke, he smoked cocaine for the rest of the day. For 20 years, John was horribly addicted to crack cocaine.

It took an offhand remark by a friend to make John realize where his life was headed, and how quickly he was throwing it away. He was 39 at the time, and the one-liner was: “Whatever you’re doing at 40, you’ll be doing the rest of your life.” It was time to, “Learn how to love John” Mr. Kimbrough realized. Soon he got clean, found the Pacific Gardens Mission, God, and Oliver’s Kitchen.

John Kimbrough graduated from Oliver’s Kitchen in September 2004. Currently, John is gainfully employed at a restaurant in the South Loop, and was recently married.

John has this to say about his experience here: “Oliver’s Kitchen was there when I needed it, and I want to thank [them] for keeping the doors open for those of us trying to work our way back into society.”

Louise Hansen

Mother of Four

Louise Hansen (name changed to protect anonymity, but a very real Oliver’s Kitchen success story) bottomed out with her drug abuse. She hadn’t seen her four children in two years. They were staying with family in New Jersey and her parental rights were taken away.  

She entered a drug rehab program and ‘got clean’. Louise heard about Oliver’s Kitchen from a social worker at her halfway house and pursued an interview. Having been clean for over six months and motivated to turn her life around, she was accepted as a student in the culinary training program. Halfway through the 12-week course she contacted a case worker at DCFS (Illinois Dept. of Children and Family Services) to see if there was anything that she could do to get to see her kids. Little did she know that she had already taken the first steps by cleaning up and getting into a job-readiness program.

The DCFS case worker contacted the New Jersey case worker monitoring her children and worked closely to evaluate Louise’ progress. Upon graduation from Oliver’s Kitchen Louise found gainful employment at a restaurant on Chicago’s west side and within a few short months she was able to begin supervised visits with her children-who had been returned to Chicago to reside with another family member. Her visitation rights are gradually being increased and will continue to be increased, as long as Louise stays on the right path of sobriety, employment and above all-motivated to be an asset to herself and her family.

Reginald Griffin

New Student

Reginald (Reggie) Griffin is in the current Oliver’s Kitchen class (January 2 – March 22, 2007). Before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans everything was going well for him. He was employed full time at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, three grown children and a grandchild on the way.

Hurricane Katrina hit their home and they had to scramble. Tired of sleeping in their car, running out of gas, swatting mosquitoes and wondering where and when the next shower or meal would come from, they headed to Texas where one of Reginald’s daughters was stationed in the military. After ensuring that his family had reached a safe haven, Reggie headed to Chicago to stay with a friend and look for work.

He found work at the Rain Forest Café in the Loop and he found “Oliver’s Kitchen” online. While attending our school he is working Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays at the Café. Upon graduation, Reginald will be working full time at Rain Forest with the hope of some day opening his own restaurant. Today both his daughters and his grandchild reside in Texas and his son has returned to New Orleans to continue his schooling.

We look forward to the day that Reginald Griffin comes back to visit his former Chef Instructors and ask if he can interview a current student to work at his restaurant. Sound far fetched? Believe it; it’s happened several times with our former students, and it will happen again…why not Reggie?

 

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