RISE Helps Matthew See What’s Possible

When Matthew joined FeedMore’s RISE program — Readying Individuals for Success and Employment — he was looking for a way to prepare for work while continuing his recovery journey.

What he found was not only practical job skills, but also the confidence to believe in himself and what might come next.

Matthew is now in long-term recovery and was looking for opportunities to prepare for employment while living in a transitional program. With previous experience in warehouse and material-handling work, RISE seemed like a natural fit.

But the 10-week program gave him much more than job training. Through hands-on experience and classes in workplace expectations, safety, food handling, logistics, and soft skills, Matthew began to rediscover something he had lost along the way: confidence in his ability to learn and succeed.

“RISE literally taught me how to learn again,” Matthew says.

That confidence soon carried into another goal he had held onto for years: going back to college. Matthew had wanted to return to school since he was 18, but his past experiences and the fear of failing — or even succeeding — had kept getting in the way.

After participating in RISE, he took the leap. He enrolled at Erie Community College to study mechanical engineering and recently completed his first semester with a 4.0 GPA.

“I never would have went back to college if it wasn’t for RISE,” he says.

Matthew was also surprised by what he learned about FeedMore itself. Before participating in the program, he knew FeedMore by name, but he hadn’t realized the scale of the operation or how much work goes into safely moving food from donations to neighbors who need it.

Most of all, RISE helped Matthew see himself differently.

“I screwed up in life,” he says. “But…this program showed me that, like, okay, that’s not all I’m good for. Like, there’s more to me.”

That belief may be one of the most important things RISE provides. With donor support, participants gain practical workforce skills, industry certificates, and the confidence to see new possibilities for their futures.

For Matthew, that next step is already underway.