2023 Spring Newsletter

Program Update

Food, Fellowship & fun

Executive Director, Mike Casey

Even though God had put the idea of a men’s home on my heart many years before it finally came to fruition, I always believed or should I say always wanted to have something to do with food. Some people eat to live, myself, I would say, I live to eat.

It wasn’t until I became a stronger believer that I understood the significance of food & fellowship:

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)

I would say this has given the residents of the Bridge the opportunity to participate with the body of Christ as they prepare meals in the grille on Sunday which allows the gathering of the saints and gives them the opportunity to break bread in fellowship.

Lives Restored

Resident Testimony - rhonda

God Has Delivered Me

“If you fully surrender and follow Jesus and His ways, He will surely set you free.”

Rhonda graduated The Bridge Restoration Ministry recovery program in 2021. She is currently resides with our Second Phase program. 

Before The Bridge, Rhonda’s life was a mess. She struggled with a battle with alcohol and drugs since the age of 13. “I was a hardcore drinker, and nobody could stop me. Even on my deathbed in the hospital, I wouldn’t change. In 2018 I was baptized and tried to give my life and addictions to the Lord, but my living situation prevented me from complete surrender. Around then, I fell into one of the deepest pits I've ever been in. One day, I drank so much that my body could barely handle it, and I was admitted to the hospital. That was one week before I came to the Bridge.”

Rhonda’s journey to The Bridge started while in the hospital. She had a blood pressure of 200 over 200. “I again got on my knees and asked the Lord to remove my addictions and be free from it all. The Lord answered my prayers. My daughter called and told me about the Bridge. At this point, I could barely see and walk because of my blood pressure, but I was able to walk to the library and apply.”

Once she was accepted, she “packed all my stuff and put all my trust in The Lord. I had my challenges in the Bridge, as I am sure many have, but God was there the whole time. I could not have done it without Him and the beautiful people at the Bridge. The Bridge offered the lasting change and hope I had been seeking for so long.”

When asked what Rhonda’s life is like now, she said, “Looking back, I can see how God has delivered me from all my addictions. I am now a full-time nana that I was never able to be for my grandbabies. The Lord has helped restore my relationship with my daughters. I am able to be a mom to them for the very first time in a long time.”

Rhonda’s advice for future residents: “If you fully surrender and follow Jesus and His ways, He will surely set you free. Keep your eyes on Him and stay focused and you too can get through anything. My praying and crying out to the Lord were a crucial part of my freedom, and having a relationship with the Father and his Word is what helps keep me aligned with his will for my life.”

Second Chance Thrift Store Spotlight

Your Donations Make a Difference

The life cycle of a donation through Second Chance Thrift Store:

When donations come in, they are sorted into totes and bins by category, then stored in various warehouse locations depending on the area that they’ll be sold.  Sadly, many things that are donated aren’t able to be sold. They may be broken or damaged in some way. We try our best to sell everything. We also upcycle a small number of unsellable items. But we often have to take things to the dump. We are limited in the space we have to store items. So, our goal is to receive and sell them as quickly as possible to keep space available for incoming donations.

Items that are unusual or that require more attention are looked up and researched, as needed, which helps us determine their value. Items are sold on either one of our sales floors or online, based on what is the best fit for the item and the space we have.  

When donated items are getting ready to be sold, they are ordered internally from their various locations. Then items are priced, ran, and merchandised on to the sales floor. If items do not sell during the regular cycle, we have a super sale, pink clearance area where items have one last chance to be sold between $0.25 to $1.25.

The variety of items we receive is large from fine jewelry to a full-size sauna! We have items that are funny, expensive, vintage, and everything in between.

We have 3 ways to shop:

Our Pacific Grove location at 105 Central Avenue focuses on selling household items, sporting goods, furniture, décor, electronics, books & media, clothing and more.

Our Monterey location at 443A Lighthouse Avenue focuses on selling clothing, shoes, jewelry, accessories, décor and more.

Our online store focuses on selling new and lightly used goods on our Shopify store at secondchancepg.com and books through our Amazon storefront.

Your donations are appreciated & needed! Donation drop offs are welcomed Monday-Saturday 10am-4pm at our Pacific Grove location: 105 Central Ave. When you drop off, you will get a donation receipt. This donation receipt will act like a coupon and is good for 60 days to get extra 10% off of your next purchase! Stay tuned, we are working on setting up regular pickups again.

If you have questions about donations, please contact us.

Your donations really do make a difference!

Culinary Program

Culinary Program online cUrriculum

Greg Miller, The Director of the Culinary Program, explains how the Culinary Program uses online curriculum to evaluate the students.

Can you describe the culinary program curriculum or overview of the program?

The Culinary Program uses an accredited, online teaching program called Rouxbe. The instruction element of it includes online tasks and exercises. The goal is to complete the 400 tasks, a combination of the online assignment and practical assignments, that make up each unit. Generally, the overall program is run for 4 months per student. This will give the student enough time to complete what’s needed. Then they go to the administrator of the online program to get advancement to the next step. The last step is a final to which guests are invited for a formal meal that will be served. These guests can be any number of different invitees, including The Bridge staff. This meal is then graded by everyone in attendance. If the student receives a passing score on this final, the certificate is administered through Rouxbe. The primary goal of the Culinary Program is to cultivate an interest in the culinary profession. But in the short term, it qualifies the residents/students to get a job in a commercial kitchen.

How is the online software used to help the culinary program students?

We presume when the students step in (the kitchen that) they know nothing. This isn’t always the case, but this program centers everybody. Everybody starts at zero. This allows us to teach them and speak in the same language. This introduces them to uniform terminology. It takes them through a topic in a natural way. The evolution is very fluid and the software helps everyone evolve in the same way, and makes sure we are all operating on the same page.

How does the software evaluate the student's work?

There are two elements of evaluation. First, I evaluate the practical portion of the cooking skill as demonstrated by the final product. Then, the software evaluates the different tasks and units that are involved in the online program.  

Since starting this accredited Rouxbe online program in 2021, there have been 14 graduates of the Culinary Program.