Submitted February 2009
By Major Herb Fuqua
Administrative Corps Officer
“May I have another one?” I asked my Mom for the seventh time. “That’s enough for now,” my Mom answered in that little sing-song way only Moms know how to chant.
It was the “for now” part that stopped me from asking an eighth time. Mom’s chocolate chip cookies weren’t just good; they were so good life without them became meaningless! Well, perhaps that’s just a bit dramatic. However, they were so delicious I memorized the recipe and started baking my own chocolate chip cookies at the age of 10…and like most kids when given the chance, I ate half the batter before actually baking any cookies.
Hello! I am Major Herb Fuqua. Three and a half years ago my wife, Major Yaneth Fuqua and I were assigned by The Salvation Army to go to Omaha, NE and bake a Kroc Center. The ingredients? Well, no one was quite sure. Ray and Joan Kroc had been cooking up a 1.5 billion dollar surprise for The Salvation Army in the USA. Joan Kroc’s ingredients were Sports, Education and The Arts. She successfully built a state-of-the-art Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in San Diego based on those ingredients. It was, and is so effective in helping the young, old and everyone in between discover their talents and giftedness in these areas that she wanted more of them built in underserved neighborhoods all across America.
Omaha was one of the 42 cities in the central USA to apply for Kroc funding.
Only seven cities ended up with the right ingredients to bake a Kroc Center. Omaha received $60 million.
While we all knew Joan’s main three ingredients, the cookies would never “raise” without finding the right combination of other spices. Major Yaneth and I had to put a recipe together in a hurry. The Salvation Army Territorial Headquarters in Chicago sent out a long list of suspected ingredients which proved to be extremely helpful. We went after the ingredients with the help of eight committees consisting of community leaders that had been organized by The Salvation Army Advisory Board and Divisional Headquarter officers and staff in Omaha. Yaneth and I had just five months to put the recipe together. Here are the ingredients that needed approval before we could start baking:
1. Pull together the work of the eight initial committees and organize all recommendations.
2. Find a location in an underserved area of Omaha that was large enough for our $30 million facility.
3. Purchase the 15.42 acres (old Wilson Packing Plant) from the city of Omaha.
4. HDR was selected to design the cookie.
5. Kiewit agreed to actually bake the cookie once the batter was ready.
6. Heritage Services stepped to the plate to raise the matching $15 million needed to add to the $30 million operating endowment.
7. A Business Committee was formed and rolled out the first five-year projected budget. The McCarthy Group helped by tasting the batter at this point to see if it was too salty.
8. To provide the required first year sampling of programs/activities throughout the facility a Program Committee provided the ingredients.
9. An organizational staffing flow chart was put in place.
10. We added a forth major ingredient that would keep the cookie really sweet. Our Salvation Army foundation for all programs and services for over 125 years. The ingredient of our “message is based on the Bible, our ministry is motivated by love for God, our mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and meet human need in His name without discrimination.” Honey kind-of holds everything together.
The 600 page recipe was sent to our Territorial Headquarters in Chicago in December 2005.
-We received approval to start finding the ingredients in April 2006.
-For over two years we sought out people representing educational institutions, sporting experts, art and performing arts professionals who agreed to help provide the needed ingredients.
-July 11, 2007 the oven was lit. (Groundbreaking)
A Speaker’s Bureau was formed to tell about our delicious new cookie.
-Other professional bakers served on our Membership Committee helping us get just the right quantity.
-Knowing not everyone could afford a bite of the cookie a Scholarship Committee was formed. Their work will end this month providing yet another important ingredient.
-The Education Committee has spiced things up and has a couple more meetings making recommendations on teaching people how to eat the cookie.
At this point, the cookie is in the oven.
The dough is beginning to rise and is visible on Y and 30th street.
The selected ingredients to provide leadership and management of the Big Cookie are quickly being put in place. They are one potent team of directors, managers and supportive staff! Do they know how to cook!!
So what’s next?
Well, we are letting as many people know as we can that this cookie is in the oven, it smells really good and they should plan to come over for cookies and milk in about nine months.
By the way, hundreds of Omaha-area community leaders and Salvation Army personnel provided all these ingredients. Major Yaneth and I are truly blessed to be giving leadership to the project as the administrators.
Once we are open, feel free to ask, “May I have another one?” And I will answer like my Dad, “Sure, eat as many as you want!”