As a young boy growing up in Omaha, Cornell often wondered where his next meal
would come from. His dad had a drinking problem and his mom had a bad accident that
paralyzed her from the waist down. While his dad’s alcohol ism seemed to consume al l
of the money for the 12 kids in Cornell’s family, his mom’s resilience and determination
made her the backbone of the family in spite of the fact that she could not even walk
herself. While his dad’s influence led Cornell to also struggle with drugs and alcohol
early in his adult life, his mom’s influence led him to overcome his family history and
get out of the cycle of poverty that often comes with substance abuse. Although
Cornell was a child who daily faced food insecurity, today he does his part to make sure no one in our community goes without a meal.
For the past 4 years, Cornell has served as our Kitchen Director at New Visions
Homeless Services. Growing up in poverty and with the strong influences of substance
abuse in his life, food was one thing that he was always passionate about. “I was
always curious about cooking,” he says, “how are they cooking that turkey, what are
they cooking for these big meals with such a big family?” In fact, Cornell remembers
his first kitchen creation being a “homemade” pizza made on bread with sauce and
government cheese. Cornell’s curiosity about cooking led him to eventually get an
Associate’s Degree in Culinary Arts. He is now working on his Bachelor’s Degree from
Bellevue University as a part of a program at New Visions that helps our staff gain the
education needed to pursue excellence in their fields and better serve our guests.
Today, Cornell has come a long way from government cheese pizza. He manages our
kitchen staff of 10 employees and coordinates 3 meals a day, 7 days a week for our 2
campuses that feed over 150,000 meals a year to anyone in our community who needs
one. While Cornell could have become a victim of the cycle of poverty and substance
abuse that he grew up in, he instead used these experiences to rise above his trauma.
“Every day I come to work,” says Cornell, “I’m happy to be here because I get to feed
the souls of other human beings.” At New Visions, feeding people has always been the
heartbeat of our mission. Cornell truly embodies that mission as he has overcome his
own circumstances and now uses his gift of preparing food to provide help, hope, and opportunity to our neighbors in need.
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