Chef-turned-pastor opens food truck to give back to community

LACONIA — A new food truck in the parking lot of E.M. Heath's Ace Hardware on Union Avenue offers much more than just lunch. At Papa’s Kitchen, every purchase helps the owners give back to the community.

Notable menu items include the papa burger, Papa’s maple dog and soup of the day. They also have daily specials. One day, specials were a meatball sub, Papa’s chicken parm sandwich, and a sausage, pepper and onion sub. The food is intended to be reminiscent of homestyle cooking.

“At home, you don't always necessarily eat the same thing," owner Nathan Searles said. "So, I tried to offer different specials."

They are open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and the menu with each day’s specials is posted outside the truck as well as on the Papa's Kitchen Facebook page.

Customer Makenna MacDonald saw the food truck on Facebook and decided to stop by with her mother.

“I saw people saying it was good,” she said. “I was like, ‘We should stop by.’”

Nathan, also a pastor at Fountain of Life Church in Lakeport, and his wife Kathy, decided to open Papa’s Kitchen in connection with the church to raise money to give back to the community. As a nonprofit food truck, they use the earnings to help people. Since opening in November, they have collaborated with organizations like Isaiah 61 Café, Love Inc. and Aspire Women’s Center. Nathan has also been able to help individuals with various needs.

“We felt like we wanted to be involved in the community, not just another church in the city,” Nathan said. “I took my background in cooking, and we thought starting a food truck would be a great way of doing it.”

It’s not every day that a pastor runs his own food truck. Nathan was raised in the restaurant business. His family owned a restaurant in Massachusetts where he grew up, and by the time he was 7- or 8-years-old, he was in the kitchen. He then spent a lot of his adult life as a chef for various restaurants. Many menu options at Papa's Kitchen are inspired by what was offered in his family's restaurant growing up.

Nathan is also a man of God. He came to Christianity after he and Kathy became teenage parents. While growing up with religious parents, the couple turned to God for guidance in a time of uncertainty. This is when their lifelong devotion to Christianity began.

“I had struggles like everybody does,” Nathan said. “Both of us had parents that were Christians. We just got to the point where we realized we needed that in our life.”

Nathan and Kathy spent 27 years attending Grace Ministries in Brentwood, where he was eventually trained and went to Bible college to be a pastor. Afterward, they asked him to serve as pastor of a church in Laconia. It was then he started leading the Fountain of Life Church, which has been around for about 10 years, and now meets at the clubhouse at Leavitt Park.

Nathan and Kathy will be married for 41 years this month and are closer to each other than ever, working in the food truck together. Kathy teared up when asked what it is that has kept them together, despite the hardships they faced.

“I love him dearly. ... He’s such a quality man when you really get to know him,” she said. “We wouldn't be together if we didn't have parents that prayed for us and believed better for us as teenagers. We just have a lot to be grateful for.”

Nathan believes he was meant to start this food truck, as a chef-turned-pastor.

“God brought it full circle for us,” he said. “Find a need, meet a need. ... This is more of a ministry than it is a business.”

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The Sunshine Effect is a series in The Laconia Daily Sun highlighting the people and organizations working to improve our communities through volunteering and fundraising. We believe that telling their stories will encourage others to support their work, and launch new charitable efforts of their own. Have a suggestion for someone making a difference we should feature? Share it with us at laconiadailysun.com/sunshineeffecttip.