Born in a rural area in Canada, James Lewis Kraft began to work in a grocery store, then in a cheese company, but ended up being sacked because of unscrupulous colleagues. Even though he was backstabbed, he was not knocked down and did not seek revenge. He simply got up, shook the dust and got back to fighting for his goals.

At that time (early 1900s), there was no refrigeration as we have today, so transporting cheese was a very delicate matter. In the summer, many traders preferred not to buy cheese, because it would often arrive at the establishment already spoiled. Cheated by his colleagues, with mere sixty-five U.S. dollars of initial capital, James Kraft rented a cart and started his new business: he would wake up at dawn to buy cheese and take a long ride to resell it to the small traders, before the sun became a cruel spoiler of the cheese. He was successful. Business became prosperous, and his brothers joined him.

James Kraft wanted to find a manner to become unique on the market. He decided, at that time, to make God his partner. Thereafter, he had an idea that revolutionized his business and his life. Cheese is a highly perishable product, and James wanted to invent a way to make it last longer. It seemed craziness, but he believed. Through the old method of trial and error, he developed a technique of pasteurization of cheese that maintained it tasty and increased its durability. The company grew quickly and his businesses grew during World War I, when the government of the United States decided to send his processed cheese to feed their troops.

Kraft worked on physical food, but he cared even more about spreading spiritual food. He wanted to bring others to know the God he knew. He was a devoted Sunday school teacher and, in addition to being a faithful tither, he contributed for the construction of churches in less privileged areas, so that the Word of God would reach the disadvantaged.

Kraft’s company subsequently became Kraft Foods, and more recently, Mondelez International, a group that owns a great variety of brands is the largest food and drink industry in America, also leading the market in many countries.

With a marketing strategy that was very advanced for the time, James Lewis Kraft was seen as a man ahead of his time — a characteristic shared by other great tithers of history.

He once shared the secret of his prosperity: “The only investment I ever made which has paid consistently increasing dividends is the money I have given to the Lord.”

Vanessa Lampert