Training for a New Life: John’s Story of Struggle & Triumph

On a sunny day in February, a long line of guests streamed through the doors of St. Anthony’s new Dining Room, eagerly awaiting a hearty meal of oven roasted chicken cacciatore. One floor below, residents of St. Anthony’s Fr. Alfred Center for addiction recovery were prepping for the next day’s meal of red beans and rice. Every day, these residents participate in St. Anthony’s Job Training Program, feeding thousands of low-income San Franciscans while learning valuable skills and earning their Food Handler Certification for California.

On this particular morning, hundreds of containers of Organic Girl lettuce were stacked neatly on a stainless steel counter. John, a participant in the Job Training Program, was rattling off numbers, eyeing the stacks of lettuce and estimating how many barrels he would need for 3,000 single serving portions.

St. Anthony’s Job Training Program introduces participants like John to the challenges of working in a fast paced, restaurant-like environment while simultaneously addressing the roller coaster of emotions that come with battling addiction.

Scribbling on the outside of the box, he jotted down a few numbers and murmured, “6 cases, 50 boxes, 20 containers, 3 barrels…I need 110 containers of lettuce.”

Behind him, Eric, a graduate of the program, now a prep chef, glanced around the spacious kitchen at pallets of onions, carrots, pears, apples, and racks of donated Valentine’s Day desserts stacked 10 feet high.

“Today’s prep is light. We’ll start with the lettuce, move on to dice 50 pounds of peppers and zucchini, 2,000 onions, 360 pounds of cornbread, and 600 tortilla shells.”

Participants in the Job Training Program prepare an average of 3,000 pounds of food a day to be served as hot meals in the following days.

For John, and all 80 members of the Job Training Program, every day gets them further from life on the streets and closer to the promise of a full time job.

“Last week I was in jail,” proclaimed John. “75 days at 850 Bryant.” In the days before jail, John was doing anything but counting containers of lettuce. “What was I not doing? I robbed, I stealed, I drug dealed.”

The struggle of growing up in the Tenderloin had taken a toll on him. “I was getting into all kinds of stuff where there’s not a lot of happy endings. I can’t live like that anymore. I want a 9 to 5.”

Change for John and many of his cohorts means a radically different life; one that moves away from the hustle of the street and towards the bustle of a place like St. Anthony’s. Instead of looking for their next fix, they work together to form the backbone of the prep kitchen. For five months they slice and dice their way to a better life while learning valuable culinary and professional skills to prepare them for a competitive job market.

Mornings in the prep kitchen are much like getting ready for a big family dinner. The whirring of machines pierced by the clanking of pots and pans is background music to the laughing and sometimes yelling that brings people closer together who are struggling to find their purpose in life. For John, that means connecting with something that is far bigger than any individual.

“It’s your classic ant colony. Everybody’s moving, everybody’s got a function. It’s called life.”

John is trying to reclaim his life in the program. He has a fierce determination to complete the program and establish himself as a working professional.

“The best therapy for me is to look out across the street where I see the hustlers. I can see me from yesterday. I’m here for a difference. Period.” What does that mean for John? “Everything.”

Read more St. Anthony’s stories in our Spring Spirit Newsletter.