However, I learned that people are also generally very kind. Some people will have their prejudices, sure. But I met some of the nicest people during the time I was homeless; people from all walks of life. I remember one time in particular, it was incredibly cold, and I was waiting to get into the schoolyard. Some lady saw me and came out of her apartment with a bag of food, comforts, and a mug of hot cocoa. She said “I’ve seen you out here for the last month. I’ve seen you shivering. I have a storage room in my garage. Would you like to sleep there for the night?” That act of kindness blew me away. I accepted her gifts, but declined the room, of course. I didn’t want to inconvenience her more than she had already gone out of her way. That’s how I knew we have some kind folks out there, and if you’re willing to help yourself, they’re willing to help you.

Photography by Jonath Mathew

About five months into my homelessness was when I remembered the CHEFS program. It was a program that I had heard about previously, and at the time, I was searching desperately for anything to get my life back on track to normalcy. It sounded perfect, the course was short, it was free, and it was about something I loved to do. I was still homeless during the beginning of the course, but for seven hours a day, it was a bright light in a time of darkness. I never missed a single class. About three months before graduation, things finally started to get better with my wife. She saw that this was something that I was very true to, and she saw that I was putting real effort into it. So I would spend a night there every so often. And gradually, we began to work things out.

It was a Friday in August of 2014 when I graduated. There were only four of us graduating out of an initial class of 20. Some people dropped out because the time commitment was too much for them. Some people were only in the program because their parole officer said they had to be in something. But they eventually dropped out, and at the end, it was only us four who had the passion and love for cooking that made it.

Photography by Jonath Mathew

“I always tell people, “If you don’t wake up in the morning looking forward to your job, then you need to find something else.”