By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer
The center’s soup kitchen and food pantry is downtown at Trinity Episcopal Church.

LEWISTON – On meal day at the Jubilee Center, Kim Wettlaufer is all things to all people.

Executive director. Troubleshooter.

And, on one recent morning in the tiny kitchen filled with homeless and near-homeless families, he’s also official plate-getter and bearer of take-home bags.

“It means so much, your actions. What we’re doing here means so to the people we serve,” he said.

For 17 years, Wettlaufer, a Bates College graduate, spent his days building a Subway mini-empire. He came to own 10 restaurants, including five in Lewiston-Auburn.

But recently Wettlaufer, 49, has strayed from that entrepreneurial core. With his day-to-day business responsibilities on someone else’s shoulders, he’s focusing on a different calling: director of the Jubilee Center.

Located downtown in the basement of Trinity Episcopal Church, the center runs a soup kitchen and food pantry popular with some of Lewiston’s poorest residents.

“It’s a wonderful thing. He’s just such a wonderful gift,” said the Rev. Larney Otis, the priest-in-charge of Trinity Episcopal.

The youngest of three boys, Wettlaufer was raised in Buffalo, N.Y. He graduated from Bates College in Lewiston in 1980, earning a degree in history.

After a short time away, Wettlaufer returned to Lewiston as a sports reporter for the Sun Journal. Then, at his oldest brother’s urging in the late 1980s, he bought his first Subway restaurant, one in Brunswick.

Within a few years, he and his partners owned three restaurants. Then five. Then 10. A hands-on businessman, he was often in his stores from opening to closing, working the counter or running the kitchen.

During his spare time, Wettlaufer volunteered to deliver groceries for Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice. He was touched by how deeply the organization cared for people. He soon became a member of its board of directors, then chairman of its capital campaign.

Soon after, Wettlaufer extended his charity work, donating to the Jubilee Center and serving on its board of directors.

In recent years, a new Subway partner took over many of Wettlaufer’s day-to-day business responsibilities. With a wife and family, 10 restaurants and charity work with two organizations, Wettlaufer could have taken the break. But then, last fall, the Jubilee Center’s executive director left.

The church’s priest told board members she needed someone to oversee the place. Someone familiar with the community. Someone who knew about fundraising and could help get things done.

“I went home and said, Well, she kind of described me,'” Wettlaufer said.

For the last few months, Wettlaufer has immersed himself in the Jubilee Center, working to secure donations and funding. Two or three days a week, the Subway entrepreneur also helps serve meals – often Bates College leftovers – and hand out plastic bags for people taking home necessities such as bread, clothes and diapers.

On busy days, 85 to 100 immigrants, homeless people and the working poor file through the center. Wettlaufer knows the names and situations of many of them.

“Hey!” he exclaimed with a smile when he saw a young woman step into line one recent morning. “We’ve missed you. How’s your son?”

Wettlaufer is supposed to spend about 16 to 20 hours a week on the Jubilee Center. He actually works 25 to 30 hours. At home, he has piles of paperwork: Jubilee Center here, Subway there. He thinks constantly about ways to increase donations, reach more people and keep the Jubilee Center open more often during the week.

But he doesn’t mind the time.

“It’s a luxury to help,” he said.

For the last few months, Wettlaufer has officially served as interim executive director. He’d be willing to take the job permanently if the board approved him, he said. Otis, who’s president of the Jubilee board, said she’d love to see Wettlaufer stay.

Part businessman, part community leader, part passionate volunteer, he fills a niche, she said.

“I think he’s going to help us grow,” she said.

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