General

At 24, Michael Froiland is quite a bit younger than most participants in the Bay Area Rescue Mission’s recovery program. But Froiland said he appreciates the perspectives of his older counterparts. “I’m trying to learn what I can from the generation ahead of me so that I don’t repeat their mistakes,” he said. Froiland began using drugs as a freshman in high school in Visalia: “Crystal meth, ecstasy, weed, alcohol, just about anything I could get my hands on,” he…

With at least a year remaining on his parole, Maurice Cathy hunkered down to spend 14 months in the culinary training and recovery program at the Bay Area Rescue Mission. Cathy, 28, said he’s been in jail eight or nine times. Most recently, he had been in San Quentin for dealing drugs in Richmond. Six months after he began the recovery program, much to his surprise, Cathy’s sentence was commuted. He was free to go. But Cathy was determined to…

When Melvin Jenkins’ brother brought him to the Bay Area Rescue Mission earlier this year, Jenkins thought it was for a cooking job. And it was — sort of. Jenkins quickly realized that he had been fooled; the “job” was actually a 14-month drug recovery program, run in conjunction with an intensive culinary training course. Jenkins, who had worked previously at restaurants, said he has always had a passion for cooking. So he agreed to join the program. Six months…