CINCINNATI — Every day, thousands stop by the busy drop-off window at Our Daily Bread, leaving with a hot meal and a to-go bag with a few sandwiches and snacks to tide them over until the next day.
While the need has only grown through the pandemic, inside the city’s largest soup kitchen, volunteer and staffing shortages have made it harder and harder to ensure there’s enough food to go around. That’s why in early January, Executive Director Georgine Getty put out a call for help.
“We’ve lost about 10 of our volunteers who are out right now and three of our staff,” she said.
Our Daily Bread distributes 600 sandwiches a day
Getty said many are out with coronavirus as cases surge across the state and others are staying home to cope with schools going virtual and other pandemic-related concerns. Meanwhile, hunger hasn’t stopped.
“We give out a hot meal and about 600 sandwiches a day,” Getty said.
Worried Our Daily Bread wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace, Getty took to Facebook, calling for community members to assemble and pack sandwiches at home, and drop them off at the center. Within two days, 275 groups and individuals answered the call.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “All we had to do was ask.”
One of the first to answer the call was Ohio Living Llanfair. Since May 2020, about a dozen volunteers from the retirement community have been working together to make sandwiches for Our Daily Bread.
Courtesy: Kathy Angi
Kathy Angi said it started as a way to give back while the center was in lockdown.
“We know that we have been very fortunate in our lives and even currently we have a warm place to live and good food and lots of company and not everybody is that fortunate,” she said.
Now, it’s become a beloved community event and Angi said her fellow residents are happy to step up whenever the need is there.
“We do 200 a week and they’re all bologna and cheese,” she said. “Sometimes we do peanut butter and jelly but peanut butter and jelly is such a mess.”
Thanks to Llanfair and the hundreds of other at-home volunteers, Getty said Our Daily Bread is set for sandwiches until March and they even have enough to give away extra for a few days.
“We have a bounty of sandwiches right now and our guests really, really appreciate it,” she said.
Getty sorts through sandwich donations
Getty said Our Daily Bread is still in need of volunteers and other food donations though, and there’s an updated list of needs on the center’s website.
With volunteers like Angi delivering though, Getty said she expects little to no interruptions to the kitchen’s service through the omicron surge.
“We haven’t missed a single day of service,” she said.
Meanwhile, Angi said she and her fellow Llanfair residents are willing to keep their sandwich train going as long as the need persists.
“I asked the team if we would continue after COVID and they said ‘Of course,’” she said. “There still will be people who are hungry after COVID is finished so we’re going to keep making sandwiches.”
