Deidre Pujols’ Open Gate Kitchen serves up hope daily

He dropped to his knees and asked God to kill him.
“If You don’t want me here, take me out,” Fernando Escobar screamed at the sky.
It was 2017. He was drunk, high, hearing threatening voices in his head and living under the Waterman Avenue overpass in Redlands. In quick succession, Escobar went to the hospital, jail, a detox center, the Rescue Mission in Tustin.
Last week, Escobar, 36, was near tears as he recounted his recent past. He’s now the manager/head cook at Open