The location was new, but the crowd was familiar as Catholic Charities served its first meal to the poor and homeless at its new Our Daily Bread Employment Center June 4.
Before the dining room opened at 10:30 a.m., 18 people who normally eat at Baltimore’s largest soup kitchen registered for employment training.
“This is what we were hoping for,” said Denis M. Murphy, director of the new Fallsway facility. “The whole idea of having the employment services in the same place as our meal program is to encourage the homeless to get the help they need to become self sufficient.”
Volunteer Janice Gallagher of Monkton went from table to table to let the homeless know case workers were stationed down the hall, ready to help them gain employment, legal and health services.
Aside from a little media coverage and redirection of traffic flow – the first meal ran smoothly, said Brooklandville resident Hugh Coyle, a parishioner of Shrine of the Sacred Heart, Mount Washington.
The people who came through the door looked familiar to Mr. Coyle, who has served meals every Monday at Our Daily Bread for the past 18 months.
Protesters who had argued during the May 24 dedication that it is demeaning to serve the homeless next to Maryland’s death row, were not present.
George William Hughes Jr. – the first person to be served at the new building – said he wasn’t bothered by the site of the prison and felt safe at the new facility.
“I got mugged in the alley behind the old building,” said the 58-year-old man who lives with a former Lansdowne neighbor. “I say Amen to this new place. God is good.”
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