Soul Food
Jake began eating organic food and using sustainably produced products when he was eighteen years old while living in Newark, New Jersey. He had to drive an hour each way to a small health food store run by a Jamaican guy in order to find them. That time in his life began a discipline that has stuck with him ever since. Jake always tries to find and support individuals and companies that sustainably grow, package, and distribute food and other vital products.
A series of photos from the autumn harvest at an organic farm Jake worked on in Maine
Jake has worked as a chef for many renowned organic and sustainable restaurants and retreat centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and New Zealand. He has also been a chef/kitchen manager for several educational organizations that work with at-risk urban youth.
Thus, Jake has been able to directly impact the lives of thousands of children and adults by providing them with wholesome organic meals, natural cooking classes, and an introduction to organic gardening.
A farm-to-table dinner Jake created at a rural homestead in coastal Maine
Jake making pizzas for The City Kids Wilderness Project in Wyoming with locally made ingredients like Bison pepperoni and Elk sausage.
Jake believes that everyone has the right to be fed. In 1998 while living in Ottawa, Canada, he began making sandwiches for homeless people and delivering them on his bike. Later, in Miami and San Francisco, he took the leftovers from restaurants that he worked for and distributed them to homeless people living on the streets or in parks after his shifts. To this day, feeding our homeless brothers and sisters continues to be a vital calling in Jake’s life through the nonprofit organization, “Feed The Way”, which he and his wife, Jess, run together.
Some of the restaurants and organizations that Jake has worked with are Hollyhock Retreat Centre, Power of Hope Camps, City Kids Wilderness Project, Millennium Restaurant, La Serrania Retreat Centre, Raw, The Grunewald Guild, Golden Lion Holistic Feasts, and The Ashland Creek Inn.
Contact Jake if your organization would like him to cater a special event, help with a fund-raising dinner, or if you would like him to offer his services cooking for the homeless or marginalized in your community. Whatever the occasion, Jake will create nourishing food that feeds people and honors the event.