On April 20, a celebration of our volunteers was held at Our Daily Bread Employment Center. We honored the ODBEC volunteers as part of National Volunteer Week, an observance to inspire, recognize and encourage people to seek out imaginative ways to engage in their communities. ODBEC certainly has the most inspiring volunteers that one could hope for.
Our doors and hearts have been open and welcoming to the hungry of Baltimore every single day since we opened Our Daily Bread on June 1, 1981. Over the past 35 years, we have served over seven million meals in nearly 13,000 uninterrupted consecutive days. Last year, our volunteers served 224,939 meals in this dining room.
In addition to numerous volunteer opportunities in ODB’s dining room, we have volunteers staffing the front desk, helping in the Work4Success class, assisting with job placement, teaching classes for CP, driving and picking up donations as well as serving as casserole coordinators at the churches. One such volunteer, Nancy Lenhoff, is a member of St. Joseph’s in Cockeysville. Her group volunteers every Wednesday, and most of these volunteers have been coming to Our Daily Bread for 12-15 years. They not only give their time, but several of the volunteers also pick up food for us at local grocery stores.
Nancy Lenhoff, has a special talent – embroidery. She custom embroiders many of the green aprons our volunteers wear. Nancy embroidered the special ODB apron that Bill McCarthy proudly presented to Pope Francis in Rome on March 2, and you can see the Pope accept her embroidered apron in their photograph.
Our Daily Bread has been around a long time, and it is here for anyone who needs it. Because of our amazing volunteers, we’re able to provide the services that change the lives of our visitors. We extend our deepest appreciation to all of our volunteers.
View photos from the event.