Salute Our Heroes: A man making a change, one meal at a time

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) -Holton Witman has been working at the Topeka Rescue Mission for over a year.

“I’ve always had a sensitive heart for those we are experiencing homelessness. I was in L.A. for school, and I would spent a lot of time doing outreach there. I never thought I would get into it as a career, I was content just handing out pizza,” said Witman.

Now, he has made a career out of his passion.

“When I first started [at the Topeka Rescue Mission] I was with the outreach team and I loved it, I did it for about 8 months.”

Then, he transitioned into the Director of Distribution Services role where he would impact those in desperate need of just a little assistance.

“We are responsible for food distribution to the community and twice a week, we hand out food bags to the community to the thousands and thousands pounds each operating day. Then, we run a clothing ministry so our guests that are in the shelters receive clothing from the distribution center and I oversee that,” he explained.

One of his biggest accomplishments, is giving families a Christmas miracle.

“We were able to provide Christmas gifts for 280 families and that’s over 1,100 individuals. That doesn’t include the guests in our shelter or the folks that are unsheltered around Topeka. By the time it is all said and done, we will be north of 1,600 folks that we have been able to provide a Christmas for, which is really awesome because for some people, that is it. That’s all they would get for Christmas.” Witman said.

It brought tears to Witman’s eyes, knowing he has already left his print on the community.

“I hope the impact that I made is that we are seeing people with the Lord’s eyes. We are looking at them like they are valuable, they matter and that they have a name.”

“On the days that it is hard, that is when I remind myself because we are all broken and we are all lost sometimes and so sometimes all it takes is for someone to reach out,” he said.

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