BY Bill Reagan
My first day on the job at Loaves & Fishes was January 1, 2010. Yes, it’s been seven years!
We keep count of the number of meals served each day. From January 1, 2010, to January 1, 2017 the Bread of Life Dining Hall served 999,999 meals.
Whoever took that first plate for breakfast on January 2, 2017 ate the 1,000,000th meal served during my tenure at Loaves & Fishes.
It sure feels good to have reached such a milestone!
I am sure Loaves & Fishes served more than a million meals before January 1, 2010. Now in our twenty-sixth year, Loaves & Fishes has been serving a lot food to a lot of hungry people for a very long time.
For me, each of those million meals is a reason to give thanks — for the selfless work of our great staff, for our dedicated volunteers, for our many friends and supporters in the community who generously provide the resources for this work of ministry.
Our million meals tell us several things about Harlingen.
There’s a lot of work to do. We have recovered a great deal from the Great Recession, but poverty rates remain stubbornly high in our area. We have many great organizations which address the issue of poverty in our community. The need is great, but the commitment of our generous community to solving the problem is greater still.
Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link every community is only as strong as its weakest member. There are many vulnerable people out there.
There is opportunity for the rest of us in that vulnerability — to be better people, more generous and compassionate; ready to help and blessed to do so.
I believe that all these meals and the people who eat them are part of the Miracle of the Multiplication, continuing the work of Jesus Who fed 5,000 men, plus the women and children, with five loaves of bread and two fish.
Bill Reagan is executive director of Loaves & Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley.
