Pastor Jeannette Brewer

ALWAYS BETTER: As a young teen, Pastor Jeannette Brewer had a rough childhood and was often getting in trouble. Sometimes it led to disagreements with local police when they were trying to return her home after she would run away. The voice of one of those police officers has been with her for a long time. “He would always say – Jeanette Brewer, you’re better than that.” That seed planted by the police officer, and a call to service, has led Pastor Brewer to feeding thousands through her Commissioned 2 Serve Community Food Pantry in Willingboro, NJ.

Pastor Brewer’s background is in social work and vocational training, but she’s always had a heart for evangelism. She started Commissioned 2 Serve International Church in 2013. She bought her current building in 2019 with her husband, but he passed away in 2020. She always wanted to create a food pantry when she opened the church and she’s wanted to keep busy since she lost her husband.

“I was hearing that some of the food pantries were closing because of COVID – but we decided to keep open multiple days a week.” She became a hub for other pantries who were distributing and delivering food. “I feel like I was born to do it – I just had a passion.”

Without initially connecting the dots to her past, Pastor Brewer would also create a youth conference called “I’m Better Than That…Created In the Image of God.” And today she’s even a chaplain for the Willingboro Police Department. She’s clearly living a life that’s not only better than that, it’s also making a lot of lives better too.