Our Daily Bread meal program to begin soon

Starting next week, First United Methodist Church in Graham will provide free hot lunches and a take-home sandwich supper to anyone in the community as an ongoing effort through the Our Daily Bread program.

The program will be held at 11:30 a.m. in the FUMC McCree Hall from Monday, July 1 through Friday, August 9. The event was started almost ten years ago when FUMC member Bronwen Choate was in her final year of teaching at Graham Independent School District.

“I kept wondering what kids did in the summer when the school stopped feeding them and then at church there were bible verses that popped up and there nagging little feelings, so I finally went to the preacher who was Richard Reed, and told him about it and he said,’I think it is a good idea, but we have to find money to do it because we don’t have budget money to do it,’” she said. “About a week later, one of the men in our congregation came up to me and said, ‘If you want to do it, we will find the money,’ and off we went.”

FUMC has its own garden which has been in use across Second Street since 2012, providing packaged fresh produce for the church to use in the Our Daily Bread program. So far this year, they have harvested 290 lbs. of potatoes which were made into 32 casseroles and mashed potatoes as well as about 100 lbs. of green beans and squash.

Organizations around Graham volunteer each year on certain days for Our Daily Bread. The Graham Rotary Club will be volunteering for July 9 and the Desk and Derrick club will be volunteering the entire last week of the program. Choate said that the group never turns away volunteers and it is easy to volunteer for the program.

For the rest of the story, see the Saturday, June 29 edition of The Graham Leader.