Nonprofit GAP Ministries opens new kitchen after fundraising effort

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — This Giving Tuesday, we want to follow up with a real success story involving one of our recent Giving Project recipients.

Back in August, after a monsoon storm damaged the GAP Ministries kitchen, we asked for donations to help the Northside nonprofit. Our generous viewers helped raise a Giving Project record of nearly $70,000, toward a new kitchen that will serve a higher number of Tucsonans in need.

And now, about three months later, I was able to attend the ribbon cutting for that new facility.

KGUN 9

Fittingly, GAP Ministries Executive Chef John Hohn was the one to cut the ribbon to open his new kitchen—and he did so with his favorite knife.

"I took the scimitar and—right through it. It was awesome."

GAP Ministries feeds thousands of Tucsonans every week. But they were almost derailed by a monsoon storm this past summer that caused major damage to a kitchen area.

So they accelerated plans to convert an unused building on their Campus of Hope into a modern kitchen.

"KGUN 9 helped us raise $70,000 in a month, which is obviously almost 25% of $400,000," Hohn said. "Three months later, here we go."

Hohn thinks the new kitchen will help them double their output of hot meals for those in need, from 200,000 to 400,000 meals a year.

"The kitchen behind me creates efficiency, creates better quality cooking. We can steam, we can grill, we can fry, we can do anything. This kitchen is exactly what we need and it has everything that we need," he tells me.

Hohn says he's already received a grant from the city to expand the kitchen even more, helping to grow his culinary program by teaching cooking skill to those in need.

"GAP's been around for 25 years. There's no way it's not going to be around for another 25 years serving 200,000 to 400,000 meals a year. It's awesome."

GAP Ministries co-founder Greg Ayers tells me they have a goal to serve 500,000 meals a year in the future.

"We're just excited to be in this space," Ayers tells me. "When you go through a struggle to get something, you appreciate it even more. This is just a real exciting day for us. It's amazing. Even though this kitchen doesn't look big, it's designed, and the type of equipment in here can mass produce meals unlike a traditional kitchen."