Our Daily Bread to Commemorate 29 Years of Uninterrupted Service of Feeding City’s Hungry on June 1

June 1, 2010

Catholic Charities Our Daily Bread will commemorate 29 years of uninterrupted service in feeding the city’s hungry on June 1. At 10 a.m., Executive Director William J. McCarthy, Jr. will greet guests and thank volunteers. The afternoon hot meal program is located at 725 Fallsway in the Our Daily Bread Employment Center (ODBEC). ODBEC is the nation’s first comprehensive resource center for the poor. Services at ODBEC include job readiness training, a computer lab, and Christopher Place Employment Academy, a residential employment program for formerly homeless men.

Catholic Charities Executive Director Bill McCarthy with Our Daily Bread volunteers.

Commenting on the significance of almost three decades of service, McCarthy states:
“June 1st is always a special milestone day for Catholic Charities. Today, we mark the 29th year of uninterrupted services at the Our Daily Bread dining room.  That’s 10,592 consecutive days of serving a hot noon meal to the hungry men, women, and children of Baltimore. Although we are proud of this milestone, we honestly wish that the numbers of our guests who suffer from poverty and hunger would decrease. Until that happens, our guests know they can depend on our staff, our volunteers who make, deliver and humbly serve the meals, and the donors who keep us in operation to be there for them. We all believe in sharing our blessings.”

Associate Administrator Christine Kay says, "This is really a celebration of our dedicated volunteers and staff who every day cherish the Divine within our guests and answer the call to serve those less fortunate."

Our Daily Bread is Maryland’s largest meal program, serving more than 250,000 meals annually.  Our Daily Bread has never closed its doors since opening on June 1, 1981, with the mission of feeding the city’s hungry in a restaurant-style atmosphere of dignity and respect. With the opening of ODBEC in June 2007, guests have access to services that address housing and employment needs and encourage independence.

A corps of 30 volunteers serves in the kitchen and in the dining room each day.  This group is comprised of church and synagogue members, students, retirees, and business employees.

The daily hot lunch centers on casseroles that are prepared primarily by suburban churches and synagogues that are committed to helping the plight of the urban poor. Stores, companies, synagogues and churches donate the remaining food items and supplies.

Guests include homeless individuals as well as the working poor, who eat at the daily hot meal program to stretch their wages, which are frequently at the minimum-wage level.

Catholic Charities is Maryland’s largest private provider of human service programs, providing assistance to children and families, the elderly, the poor and the developmentally disabled—without regard to religion, race or other circumstances.

# # #