COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
Free Chapel
Orange County Campus
 
Free Chapel Orange County Campus in Irvine is a contemporary Christian church that’s passionate about reaching souls for Jesus Christ, and everything they do is about Him.

Free Chapel was founded in Gainesville, Georgia more than forty years ago. It’s a multi-site campus and its Irvine campus is the only location in California. Their focus is on being a dynamic church that reaches out with the love of Christ to those lost and hurting in our community. They are multi-generational, all ethnicities and offer ministries for youth, young adults, groups, marriage, women, men and much more. 
  
Prior to the pandemic, Free Chapel thrived with convention events and ministries that would reach a broad community. “We made an impact throughout Orange County by partnering with the American Red Cross and offered monthly blood drives and even sent members down to orphanages in Tijuana,” said Kelly Aleman, Small Groups Pastor at Free Chapel Orange County.
  
“When COVID hit, we had to shift our outreach efforts into high gear. With ‘boots on the ground’ we partnered even more with the local community,” said Kelly. “When food, cleaning supplies, basic needs were getting harder and harder to find, we started collecting essential packages for the community and offered a daily list of what we could provide.”
 
MEET THE STAFF
Meet Mary. . .
Mary is one of the16 people we were able to employee last year in the height of the pandemic. Before joining our team Mary worked for another food company and had a full time job and was well paid.

When the pandemic hit that company was forced to close their doors and Mary quickly found herself without a job. Bill had met Mary a few years earlier at our former kitchen space and always admired Mary for her gentle spirit, hard work and kindness towards others. "She was always friendly and always had a smile on her face, just the kind of people we want at the kitchen," says Bill.
You can teach people a lot of things, but you can't teach attitude and Mary always has a great attitude..

With that wonderful attitude and sweet smile we didn't hesitate to give her an opportunity to work with us when she reached out. She was hired almost a year ago and has led the charge on the packaging team. With over 7,000 meals being made every day, the packaging team is an integral part of our work and Mary has played a crucial role on that team.

When Mary was without work she volunteered regularly helping to give out food at her church in Long Beach. With a heart for helping others she is happy to be able to work with our volunteers here and earn a living helping others.

Mary's mother use to play baseball and in her spare time Mary loves to watch either the Dodgers locally or the Tomateros in Mexico, her favorite team.

Thank you, Mary, for all of your hard work, dedication and commitment to helping our friends and neighbors in need.
The HUNGRY GAMES
BREAKING NEWS
Our lineup of amazing culinary talent continues to grow.

Sandro Nardone will be joining the chefs vying for the Hungry Games title while Shelly Register and Leslie Nguyen will be blessing us with their
amazing sweet treats.

Early bird tickets have been extended until the end of this week. Don't miss out on the most exciting culinary event in the County. It's a great evening of food, fun and purpose, all for our friends and neighbors in need.

Purchase Tickets: Hungry Games 4.0
www.BrackensKitchen.org | 714.554.1923 | Chef@brackenskitchen.com