A Lifetime of Service Feeding Others
Alexis Allen’s desire was to feed the homeless, and God led her to the Mission.
Alexis Allen has spent a lifetime feeding and encouraging others, and now the Mission is blessed to have her serve, managing the kitchen at the Family Home. Since her youth, Alexis has served meals at shelters and invited others to church events. When her parents divorced, Alexis and her mom lived in a shelter themselves before finding a house to rent. An early marriage and domestic violence eventually led to divorce. That’s when Alexis recommitted her life to the Lord.
Working full-time as a cook meant long hours and weekends away from her children, so Alexis started her own home-baking business and did private catering. Then Covid struck.
Eventually Alexis and her children had to live in their car as she searched for full-time employment. “Oh, Lord, where are we going from here?” she prayed. Always in her heart had been the desire to feed the homeless. On her way to a job interview, she got pulled over. Because her tag was expired, her driver’s license was pulled and tags were removed from the car. Now she had no transportation and nowhere to live.
At that point Alexis made the very hard decision to let her children live with their father. She felt like God had been leading her to the Misson for a long time, where she had volunteered in the past. In September 2023, Alexis was accepted as a resident. That week in Chapel, in his sermon, Pastor Richard, who has since been a great source of encouragement to Alexis, said, “God has sent you here for a purpose, and you’ve got work to do.”
With her extensive experience and a degree in culinary management, Alexis was assigned to the kitchen, where her skills were quickly noticed by Julio Cayo, Director of Food Services at the Mission. She is now on staff full-time as the Assistant Manager of Food and Beverages at the Mission. “I truly believe God led me here,” she said.
Alexis has benefitted from programs offered at the Mission. “Parenting classes helped me listen to my children’s concerns and not just tell them what to do,” she said. Jobs Partnership helped her learn to bring out the best in people. She and her children, Chloe, 21, Nehimiah, 17, and Emma, 12, get to be together every weekend at church. Meanwhile, Alexis is saving her money so they can be reunited in a place of their own.
Matthew 25:34, where the king says, “I was hungry and you fed me … when you did it for the least of these, my brothers, you did it for me,” guides her life. “This is what the Mission donors have done, who, being obedient in giving, not just to a shelter, but to a ministry, have helped reestablish people’s lives in Christ.” Alexis is seeking to pay it forward, and we are so glad that God led her to the Mission to fulfill her desire to feed the homeless.