Our Daily Bread to serve its last meal at 16-year site on June 3

03 Jun 07 12:00 AM CDT

On Sunday, June 3, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the last meals will be served at the 16-year site of Catholic Charities’ Our Daily Bread, located at 411 Cathedral Street. The seven-day-a-week free hot meal program that serves an average 800 people per day will relocate and open its doors for service on June 4 at Our Daily Bread Employment Center on 725 Fallsway. More than 5 million meals have been served since the program began 26 years ago on June 1, 1981.

The three-story, 52,000-square-foot building is the city’s newly constructed comprehensive resource facility for the poor and unskilled. It will also house two other existing Catholic Charities’ programs: Christopher Place Employment Academy, an 18-month residential employment program for formerly homeless men and Maryland Re-entry Partnership, a program that assists ex-offenders successfully reintegrate into the community. Case management and other services by Catholic Charities and partner providers include:  eviction prevention services, emergency and referral services, job-readiness assistance, job referral services, job placement, job retention and follow up, adult basic education, medical services (limited), recovery support, assistance with criminal background issues, access to computers and telephones, mail distribution, and workshops on home ownership, financial literacy and healthy relationships. The accessibility of resource services to diners is designed to help people escape the impact of poverty on themselves and their families through employment and stable housing.

Weeks prior to the move, guests where given backpacks that contained a map to the new site and a list of services that will be available.

June 3rd Sunday meal

Volunteers from Immaculate Conception Church of Towson will cook and prepare their regular third-Sunday-of-the-month meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad and milk. Dessert will be provided by Calvary Baptist Church of Towson. The Immaculate Conception group, coordinated by husband and wife Paul and Jo Miller, has provided the meatloaf dinner since the meal program began 26 years ago.

The overnight transition to the new site will maintain the program’s unbroken record of having never closed its doors since it began June 1, 1981. The Cathedral Street building will be renovated and become the new home of Catholic Charities My Sister’s Place, a day program for homeless women and their children, which will open in 2008. Our Daily Bread is Maryland’s largest hot meal program.

To volunteer at Our Daily Brad, call 443-986-9000.

More information about Our Daily Bread Employment Center

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