Breaking Bread and Building Relationships

Throughout scripture, we see Jesus intentionally sitting down with his friends over a meal and speaking life and truth into them. Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, we seek to imitate the example Jesus set for us in pursuing people from all walks of life over a meal and encouraging conversation. Breaking bread and conversation opens the door for us to show the love of Jesus to our neighbors and provides us the personal equity with our guests to equip them to take their next step.

What we do

We serve our guests on Tuesday and Thursday weekly and on the First Friday of every month. Tuesday afternoons we provide our guests with a meal, hygiene items, and a comfortable environment for fellowship with our volunteers and other guests. Thursdays we provide our guests with a meal, hygiene items, and free clothing.

Our First Friday program provides shoes, blankets, and coats for our guests as well as connects our guests with different local agencies who can help them find employment, housing, and secure legal documents.

How you can serve

We require all volunteers to attend Orientation before their first serving opportunity.

Donation Center Volunteers are responsible for processing the donations we receive from donors in the community. Once we receive donations, our staff and volunteers will sort through the clothing to make sure it is fit to serve our guests depending on the season we are in and what will meet their most practical need. Anything we cannot use that is donated to us will either be recycled or redistributed to another local organization. This is a more “behind the scenes” role but is vital for us to be able to meet our guests basic needs. Donation center volunteer hours take place on Mondays from 4pm-6pm, Wednesdays from 11am-1pm, and the last Saturday of every month from 10am-12pm.

Louie’s Hosts are responsible for providing our guests with a welcoming and comfortable environment on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. They are responsible for setting up the dining area, making dinner plates for our guests, and sitting down with our guests to hear their stories and develop relationships with them. Louie’s Host Volunteer hours take place from 3:30pm-6pm on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

Meal Providers are individuals or groups who provide the dinner we serve to our guests. Whether they provide a potluck-style home-cooked meal or have a meal catered from a local restaurant, they are crucial to our program as they are directly feeding guests who may not know where their next meal is coming from. We encourage meal providers to volunteer as Hosts on the evenings they serve so that they can build relationships with the guests they are feeding.