Our History

The Jesus Center originated from two separate efforts to feed hungry people in the early 1980s. Mary Thekston, a member of the Church of Our Divine Savior in Chico, was determined to help the poor. After completing a master's degree in spirituality, she began Bible studies among homeless people and gave out food in crock-pots and hot plates that soon turned into informal meals.

At about the same time, a group of young people at the St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church raised money for a ski trip but ended up using the money to feed the hungry. They started a monthly and then weekly dinner program called the Chico Free Dinner Program. Both efforts by Thekston and the Episcopal Church youth resulted in the establishment of the Jesus Center or as it became known - Jesus Provides Our Daily Bread - located at 1530 Park Avenue.

In January, 1996, the Park Avenue building received minor damage through fire. In February a second suspicious fire resulted in the facility shutting down. Three more arson fires were started with the last one leading to the building being burnt down. As the Chico Enterprise Record reported on September 28, 1997: "The 'Jesus Provides Our Daily Bread' building was demolished by fire reported at 11:48 p.m. Friday (September 26), stated a city of Chico Fire Department news release." The Salvation Army on 16th and Laurel had provided immediate help and the Newman Center at Third and Cherry streets allowed the Center staff to use their facility to feed people. In fact, the relationship with the Newman Center lasted for two and a half years. A community fund-raising drive raised over $100,000 and through this effort and other means the Center bought the Old Ice House at 1297 Park Avenue, not far from its previous location on the same street. Sabbath House, a women and children's refuge facility in a trailer, opened in the grounds of Neighborhood Church in 1997 and in 2002 was completed as a permanent facility alongside the Ice House complex, and so with a commercial kitchen and a woman and children's facility the Center established itself in a permanent location.

The Center has come a long way - from Mary Thekston's initial beginnings in the early 1980s, through Executive Director Jonelle Pena's establishment of the Center as an organization consistently providing meals to hungry people, to subsequent Director Katy Thoma's trials in the 90s - coping with 5 arson fires and public opposition to a further facility after the original building on Park Avenue had been burned down. Through all these things, these women maintained a tenacious belief that the right thing to do was to help broken people in Chico and not leave them to be rejected and ignored.

From its elementary beginnings to its present state, the Jesus Center has given opportunity to over 3,000 volunteers whose energy, time and money have made the Center what it is today -- that is, a community-owned enterprise focused offering hospitality in the name of Jesus to Chico's hungry and homeless people