Faith in Feeding: St. Luke's Lutheran Church Volunteers Serve the Hungry and Homeless

Martha Applegate could have been home practicing her French horn for a Sunday concert at the Kroc Center.  Paula Newak-Wichman could have spent time looking for a job.  And me?  I was tagging along as part of the AOL and Huffington Post 30-Day Service Challenge.

On Monday afternoon, I joined Applegate, Newak-Wichman and fellow volunteer Marie Handley of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church for a regular trip to their TACO volunteer stint in downtown San Diego.

TACO stands for Third Avenue Charitable Organization, which for 35 years has been feeding the hungry and homeless at the First Lutheran Church of San Diego.  Its outreach ministry includes Monday afternoon dinners, Friday breakfasts and an informal medical, dental and mental health clinic after the  meals.

More than 150 homeless San Diegans, mostly single men, lined up outside a church meeting room at Third and Ash streets about 4 p.m. Monday, filing past tables with trays of freshly filled salad, bread, fruit, soup and other items.

I’d never served the homeless in San Diego, but was given a prime responsibility—ladeling a rich meat-and-vegetable soup from a large kettle, probably 7.5 gallons, into delicate Styrofoam cups.

I went through two batches and didn’t spill a drop, thanks in part to a La Mesa Middle School student who deftly placed the bowls on a tray. He was volunteering with a half-dozen other youngsters as part of a contingent from Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, also in La Mesa.

Pastor Mark Menacher of St. Luke’s Lutheran, on Wilson Street, says some of his congregants are such fixtures of TACO meals that the homeless know them by name.

“Some folks are there every week, sometimes twice a week,” Menacher said of his  volunteers. “They won’t tell a soul how often they’re there. … That’s delightful when that happens. Warms my heart no end.”

Randy Engel of St. Luke’s, a former TACO volunteer coordinator, also helping at Monday’s meal, said: “Ninety-five percent of the people are so grateful and appreciative and thankful.”

He recalled how last year a 53-year-old man froze to death in front of Petco Park, and described other dangers (from beatings and robbery) that the homeless face—plus something few think about: sleep deprivation.

“How deep a sleep can you get when you [get] three to four hours a night? How do you operate? (I’m) like a zombie. I don’t know how these people do it.”

For most of the people fed between 4 and 5 p.m. Monday, Engel said, “this is the first meal they eat all day.”

The 34-year real estate agent not only serves meals but also gathers ingredients—on Monday picking up Souplantation muffins left over from the weekend and collecting oranges from fellow church-goers and real-estate office staffers.

“I try to give them some vitamin C,” Engel says.

Applegate, who drove me and two others to First Lutheran in her SUV, says she’s volunteered at TACO for six years—and has been St. Luke’s outreach chairperson for 11.

St. Luke’s also helps with long-term assistance as well as short-term needs, Menacher noted.  The La Mesa church has donated money. On holidays, it has given gift-wrapped flannel shirts, T-shirts and blankets.

Applegate, a 13-year La Mesa resident with her husband of 58 years, Richard, recalls other recent gifts to TACO: scarves and meal vouchers for Jack in the Box.

Jim Lovell, executive director of TACO, uses a cane while battling multiple sclerosis but still exercises authority over the courtyard meal area. On Monday, he quieted a cursing argument by some people waiting for the meal. Overall about 200 meals were served Monday, including seconds.

A family shelter for women and children is five blocks away, Lovell said, so few families visit First Lutheran for the Monday and Friday meals. Most of the people served Monday were single adults—“more men than women, more white than not,” he said.

“Downtown on any given night there may be [no meals],” he said. “And there may be three.”

Engel, the St. Luke’s regular at TACO, said: “I just feel so sorry for these people. I’m so blessed with what I have. …  My problems or issues are minuscule compared to theirs.”