Life sometimes has a funny way of taking you in directions you wouldn’t have necessarily gone on your own. Sally Green probably didn’t picture herself running a soup kitchen, much less turning that meal program into a multipronged, established Greenville-area nonprofit. But her teaching background and her family passion for food and entertaining combined with unforeseen life circumstances all came together in a way that did exactly that.
Read MoreKathy Sakraida moved to Greenville two years ago and almost immediately began volunteering at Project Host every Wednesday. She also serves as the treasurer of the Rotary Club of Greenville City Center and recently helped Project Host receive a $1,000 grant toward the Soup Kitchen revitalization efforts. We sat down with Kathy to learn a little more about how she learned about Project Host and what has kept her faithfully coming back every week for the past two years.
Read Moreroject Host today announced that it will be re-opening its facilities for full in-person dining on July 4, 2021.
Read MoreTaryn Copeland has been a dedicated volunteer at Project Host for three years. She’s been such a steadfast presence, in fact, that she was recognized as a Molina Healthcare Community Champion in 2018 for her work at Project Host. She comes three days a week to help wherever she can in the Soup Kitchen, and her easy-going nature brings a calming presence to guests and volunteers alike.
Read MoreDebra Wray’s story could be told in a great redemptive arc of an exceptional woman beating terrible odds and clawing her way out of a cycle of addiction and abuse to a position of sobriety, stability, and success. But Debra wouldn’t want her story told that way. On the contrary, she’d want you to understand the ordinariness of it all.
Read MoreProject Host is the recipient of a $50,000 Greenville Women Giving grant that will be used to renovate its 25-year-old soup kitchen. The award is one of 11 grants issued this year by Greenville Women Giving for a total of $550,000 awarded to Greenville area non-profits.
Read MoreCEO Tobin Simpson talks about Project Host’s work through the pandemic and for the past 40 years.
Read MoreSusie Porter began her involvement with Project Host about a year and a half ago, volunteering in the Soup Kitchen and the garden. When she heard the garden was back open after a COVID hiatus, she signed up to volunteer again and has been a regular presence ever since.
Read MoreBelieve it or not, the pink hair might be the least radiant thing about Chef Marianne Harris. If you ask any of her culinary students about her, common refrains include: Chef Marianne is great. She’s amazing. She’s fantastic. She’s patient with me. You don’t feel judged by her. She implements how she does things without making you feel run over. She answers all of your questions and takes time out for you.
Read MoreA Greenville couple donated meal voucher back on 2019 trip to Melbourne, and the recipient of that meal wrote a note to the City of Greenville to thank them. As it turns out, that couple was our very own Chef Linda and her husband.
Read MoreIn fall 2019, Trina Gambrell’s life got turned upside down when her 23-year-old son, Christopher, was shot in the head as an innocent bystander of a drive-by shooting. Having sustained an injury akin to JFK’s fatal bullet wound, Gambrell’s son was expected not to live, and doctors urged Trina to take him off of life-support.
Read MoreAs an engineer with several years of work experience at Michelin behind her, Ashley Daniels is—it’s fair to say—not the typical student who comes through the CC Pearce Culinary School. While Ashley loved working for Michelin as a tire designer, after a few years, she felt like she was just going through the motions.
Read MoreRosemarie Winters began her involvement with Project Host when she was the organization's Sysco representative. She fell in love and vowed that when she retired, she would volunteer here, and she's been a Wednesday regular ever since.
Read MoreOften when a nonprofit endures and grows, it’s because of more than just the fact that there is a need in the community. It takes a special person or group of people to keep the momentum going and move an organization forward. For Project Host, that person was longtime director Jody Fails, who began her oversight of the Soup Kitchen in 1986.
Read MoreCharles Leister has been faithfully volunteering with Project Host for seven years, typically twice a week. He’s our volunteer of the month in February because we know he can always be called upon to help if we’re short volunteers. We sat down with Charles to discover what motivates him to devote his time to the Soup Kitchen.
Read MoreJada Barrett is a woman on a mission, focused on accomplishing goals and working her way up in her career. A mother of three children under the age of five, Jada spends her days in the CC Pearce Culinary School at Project Host learning and earning her ServSafe certification, and her nights and weekends working at Copper River Grill.
Read MoreLife threw Whitney Pollard for a loop when COVID hit. A single mother of three, Whitney suddenly found herself without school or daycare for Zavion (12), Parker (9), and Morgan (18 months). Like so many women across the country, Whitney had no choice but to quit her job and manage her children’s remote learning and care.
Read MoreIt was just last fall when Russell Ketzler found himself in the ICU from alcohol poisoning, having hit rock bottom in his struggle with addiction.
Read MoreAmy Espittia always had a fondness for the culinary arts, and for bakeries and baking in particular, because some of the few fond childhood memories she has of her mother revolved around after school trips to a bakery and making cookies together.
Read MoreAfter retiring to Greenville in 2020, Dave Gerhard looked for places to volunteer and came across Project Host. Dave works in the Soup Kitchen weekly, and this month he earned our special thanks by signing up for extra slots when he saw numbers were low and helping Chef Marianne in our culinary kitchen. We asked Dave what it is about Project Host that’s kept him coming back since September.
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