There is a door on the East State Street of St. Bernard's church in Akron that I've walked passed hundreds of times and never really noticed. The only thing labeling the door is a small sign reading "Social Hall." It turns out this where the St. Bernard's Hunger Program has been serving meals to those in need for over 35 years.

This past Sunday, a group of us from Torchbearers joined about 30 other volunteers from congregations, local schools, and other organizations to help serve the hot meal program. The meals are served on Sundays and Wednesdays to an average of 220 people. In addition, the church offers a daily sandwich program serving 100 per day, a weekly food pantry program serving 150 families per month, and a clothing, furniture, and household items program. With the help of volunteers and donations, the church is able to do all this with an operating budget of about $90,000.

After getting the table places set, there was a short orientation given by Tony, who has been with the program for eighteen years. He shared some stories that I'm not able to do justice. The lesson was whether they are poor people there for food or the lonely looking for some company, he reminded us that this was their night out and we should treat them like customers in a restaurant.

Most of the volunteers seemed to have been there before and were busy working. I didn't really know what to do so I introduced myself to a couple of high school kids who seemed to be on top of things. Turns out they were Hoban students and I immediately dropped Greg's (I mean Mr. Milo's) name. I immediately had some friends. They helped explain how the meal distribution worked. I got behind them in the orderly line running plates of food out to volunteers waiting at the tables to set it in front of people.

Once the meals were all served, it was time to take out small pieces of donated cake from West Side Bakery. It so happened that one of the Hoban guys and I took out one of the first trays of cake. We were instructed to start at the tables in the back corner of the room that are reserved for families. These were only about 20 kids out of about 180 people there that night. It is tough to describe how it felt to hold the tray and help kids and adults alike decide what piece of cake to choose. I'll just say it was humbling.

They do so much behind this simple door on the side of St. Bernard's. I appreciated the opportunity to get to participate and hope to do it again soon.