Stewardship & Hosting

Since 1983, River of Life and the predecessor in this building, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, have hosted the only site of Loaves and Fishes in north Minneapolis. There are 7 other sites around the metro area. This site serves a hot meal 5 nights per week, 5:30-6:30 pm, year round. 35 serving teams of volunteers prepare and serve the meal to 100-200 people each night. Last year (2009) 40,944 meals were served from River of Life’s kitchen. River of Life members serve on one serving team, but the greatest contribution the congregation makes is in subsidizing the utility bills of running this kitchen so often. Since the kitchen is circa 1929, a team of River of Life members and Loaves and Fishes volunteers are in the process of securing enough funding to undertake the first major remodel of the kitchen’s history. See the Kitchen Remodel Page for more information.

The Broadway Culinary Program of the Minneapolis Public Schools ended in 2010, but Chef Jeff Riley still teaches young adult students to be caterers. His new crew still serves the seniors' meal once a month at River of Life.

Youth Enterprise, under the direction of Kemen Taylor, occupies a room on the third floor of River of Life’s "old building". This is one of 3 sites for this program, where teens learn to screen-print t-shirts. Business training and faith-based mentoring are equal in importance during this training. Youth Enterprises makes the t-shirts for River of Life’s vacation Bible school and some special events, and neighborhood teens benefit from not only the space for t-shirt-making, but also the gym for some basketball.