Our Story


FreshMinistries is a 501(c)3 outreach organization working to eliminate extreme poverty by empowering communities and individuals to realize their full potential.

Incorporated 1989 and launched in 1994, FreshMinistries focuses on sustainable outreach in core-city Jacksonville and throughout the world, through programs to teach financial literacy, life skills, job preparation, business incubation and other initiatives aimed at enhancing the quality of life in impoverished and crime-ridden neighborhoods.

Current programs include the highly successful Beaver Street Enterprise Center (our core-city business incubator), the LifePoint Career Institute (providing job training and placement for unemployed adults), and FreshFutures, FreshPath, helping at-risk youth (including court-involved youth) gain life skills and job placement, and Substance Abuse Prevention and Outpatient Treatment Services.

We also are launching aquaponics facilities in Jacksonville and around the world.
Founder of FreshMinistries

Our Founder

The Rev. Dr. Robert V. Lee III

Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

After serving as rector of Church of Our Saviour in Jacksonville, Florida, Dr. Lee was called to establish a new kind of ministry. Having created the concept for FreshMinistries in 1988 and incorporating it into a working 501(c)(3) in 1989, Dr. Lee elevated the organization to a full-time ministry in 1994.

It was his dream to bring his ministry out of the church and into the community to serve all faiths and races. This outreach unites people in need and the people who have resources to share with the less fortunate. Dr. Lee’s mission for FreshMinistries and its partners is to utilize all available resources as tools to empower individuals in need with opportunities to improve their lives and those of their families. These opportunities, provided through the many programs of FreshMinistries, work through education, economic redevelopment, health initiatives and housing in communities throughout the world.

Before becoming an ordained priest, Dr. Lee had a successful career in business. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and continued graduate studies in journalism at the University of Georgia. Upon accepting his calling into the ministry, he earned a master’s of divinity from Yale University and a doctorate of theology from New York Theological Seminary.

Currently serving as a non-stipendiary Canon for Outreach and Ecuminism in the Diocese of Florida, he has also served parishes in Connecticut and Florida. He has served as the Chairman of the Interfaith Sub-Committee of the 2005 Super Bowl Host Committee in Jacksonville and as a director for: St. Mary’s Outreach Ministry in Jacksonville, the Samaritan Center, Dignity-U-Wear, Christian Healing Ministries, Jacksonville Interfaith Council, Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville (HabiJax), Jacksonville Urban League and the Florida Council of Churches. By appointment of President George W. Bush, Dr. Lee serves on the Presidential Advisory Council on Financial Literacy; by appointment of Governor Jeb Bush, Dr. Lee currently serves as a member of the Governor’s Faith-based Advisory Board, for the state of Florida. As a mayoral appointee he also serves on the Mayor’s Faith-based and Community Advisory Board for the city of Jacksonville. Dr. Lee is also the first head of a not-for-profit organization to serve as a Director on the Board of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Compass Rose Society an organization of the Anglican Communion serving the Archbishop of Canterbury. By appointment of Queen Elizabeth II, Dr. Lee has also been inducted into the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.

Our History

Our Goals

 

FreshMinistries embraces all of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, with specific emphasis on economic development, education and health initiatives.