Sister Jean’s
History
The Story of Sister Jean
In 1986, Jean Webster saw a homeless man going through a dumpster to find food. She took him to a nearby fast-food restaurant and bought him a meal. Then she invited him to come to her home for dinner the next day if he had nothing to eat. She said she felt called by God to do this and out of this experience she began a mission feeding hungry people in Atlantic City, making it known that there would be food for anyone who needed a meal at her home. Word spread quickly in the city, and before long she was providing meals for more than 100 guests two meals per day when she wasn’t working at her full-time job as a chef at the Taj Mahal Casino. At first, she used her own funds to purchase food, but as her work received more and more attention donations were made from various sources to continue the work of the woman called “Sister Jean” and known as “The Mother Teresa of Jersey.”
As the number of people being served grew, it was no longer possible to continue providing meals from her home, and in 1997 she moved operations to Victory First Presbyterian Deliverance Church on Pennsylvania Avenue in Atlantic City. At that site, she was able to accommodate many more guests, and with the assistance of a core of volunteers she served over 400 people per day. She continued her remarkable mission until her death in 2008 at the age of 76.
A non-profit corporation was formed to continue her work, called Friends of Jean Webster, Inc. Its director was The Rev. John Scotland, who was pastor of the Brigantine Community Presbyterian Church. In 2017 with help from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA), Friends of Jean Webster purchased the property occupied by St. Monica’s Church on Pennsylvania Avenue with plans to continue Sister Jean’s work. The site needed to be renovated, and efforts were taken to raise funds for the project. Finally in 2020 Sister Jean’s Pantry was opened and became a site for the distribution of non-perishable food for needy people in the area. In 2024 the Kitchen was again opened and is today serving hot meals for hungry and homeless people five days per week.
2007 | Sister Jean Webster unveils her Historical Plaque before annual Thanksgiving Dinner at the Victory First Presbyterian Deliverance Church, in Atlantic City Thursday, Nov 22, 2007.
House of happiness
Webster disliked the term “Soup Kitchen” for having a quick-and-dirty connotation, and her kitchen served more than soup. She preferred to emphasize the community and spirituality aspect, describing the operation as a “house of happiness" or "mission,” as well as referring to attendees as “guests.” Her operation attracted some criticism, as Victory First was close to Atlantic City's tourism district and there were worries that the line-ups of homeless people eager for food would not present the city well to outsiders. She defended doing her work in Atlantic City's downtown, noting that she insisted on professional behavior from guests in line.
Health issues and age impaired Webster's ability to continue working in the late 2000s. Economic issues, such as the declining profitability of Atlantic City casinos and the recession of 2007 - 2009, put pressure on the funding of the kitchen, and Sister Jean's Kitchen had to lay off staff in late 2008. Jean Webster died on January 10, 2011, at the age of 76 due to illness.
After Webster became unable to continue working due to health issues late in her life, Sister Jean's Kitchen continued to operate under others. Webster authorized a nonprofit foundation, the Friends of Jean Webster, to take over running the kitchen as her health declined. The organization continued operating Sister Jean's Kitchen after her death. Its executive director is John Scotland, who served as the minister of the nearby Brigantine Community Church from 1991–2021.
The move of Sister Jean's Kitchen to Victory First Presbyterian Deliverance Church had been done in haste due to Webster having to leave her original rented home, and was originally a temporary arrangement. Webster planned to move to a new location as early as 2005, but plans fell through. Victory First was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. As a result, the urgency in searching for options to move out increased. In 2017, the organization purchased space at St. Monica's, a former Catholic church on Pennsylvania Avenue a few blocks away from Victory First. The Friends of Jean Webster planned to renovate St. Monica's kitchen and use it as the new home of the soup kitchen with support from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA), a public agency that uses taxes from the casinos for projects to improve Atlantic City. However, these plans largely fell through. The St. Monica's building was deemed unsafe in its current condition, and fixing this would require a larger grant than the CRDA was willing to provide after estimates of the cost of the renovation climbed to 2 million dollars. The CRDA eventually reimbursed the Kitchen for $300,000 of the money they had already spent on the attempt to redevelop the property.
City inspectors considered Victory First still too damaged to continue to host the soup kitchen. Sister Jean's Kitchen shut down in February 2019 after continuing concerns about safety and fitness for the purpose of Victory First. Other programs for the indigent in Atlantic City saw increased volume after the closure, putting pressure on their finances.
In November 2020, Sister Jean's Pantry was opened by the Friends of Jean Webster. Rather than the soup kitchen of before that served hot meals daily, something made infeasible both by budget and by the pandemic impacting in-person dining, the Pantry is instead an emergency source of non-perishable food boxes. It operates out of St. Monica's, which while not fully renovated for kitchen use, was approved for simpler pantry distribution purposes.