Computer assists in feeding hungry
Monday, September 10, 2007KIM BRYAN
News staff writer
Southside Baptist Church members who volunteer at The Table offered homemade lasagna to their guests at the Old Firehouse Shelter Sunday, giving new meaning to the idea of online servers.
Unlike traditional programs to feed the homeless and hungry, The Table is a Web-based organization that requires little organization, said Wanda Cantrell of Southside Baptist, who helped prepare and serve the meal.
Participants visit thetableonline.org to peruse the Web site's calendar and see what times are open. Then they shoot an e-mail to book the date. E-mails are sent to Chris Retan, director of Alethia House, a nonprofit drug rehabilitation agency.
"I like the lack of bureaucracy," Cantrell said of this modern approach to solving an age-old problem. "You pick a date, cook a meal and serve it. It's very pure service."
The Table's concept may be technology-driven. But participants prepare meals they would serve at their own tables and work to create a family atmosphere. Rather than their guests waiting in lines, they get personal service at tables.
Cantrell and crew spent hours Saturday in the church kitchen, browning beef, perfecting sauce and adding just the right amount of spices to 50 pounds of lasagna. The entree simmered for three hours Sunday. The cooks toted coolers of fresh tossed salad and pans of warm garlic bread to the shelter, a trip Cantrell has made a dozen times.
Their effort doesn't go unnoticed by guests such as Walter Brown and Jack Gallaher, Old Firehouse Shelter recipients of Sunday's repast.
"You can't beat the food people from The Table bring us," Gallaher said. "They put a lot of care in the food. But when they serve it to you, you know they care about you, too."
Bryant smiled and said, "God's still in the blessing business."
Ten years ago, neither could have imagined being homeless, the men said. Their paths would likely never have crossed. But both made decisions that resulted in being alone, broke and having to accept help, they said.
"I was incarcerated," said Bryant, 49, who grew up in Ensley. "The only family I still had around here was my grandmother. When I got out, she had passed on. It was real hard to accept I had nothing or nobody. Sometimes, you don't have a choice. You do what you have to until it gets better."
Gallaher, 45, is a Louisiana native, who went to Louisiana State University, then joined the Marines, he said. Later, while in Florida, he, too, spent time in prison, he said.
Gallaher's goal to be reunited with his daughter living in Wilcox County led him to Alabama. He found work in Birmingham, but after a traffic accident left him without transportation, he turned to the shelter for help. "You have to believe in yourself, " Gallaher said. "Quitters never win, and winners never quit. I'm not a quitter."
Bryant said he's regained dignity from receiving the goodness of others, such as the 15 folks from Southside Baptist Church and other groups affiliated with The Table.
"We've had our bumps. They've been lessons in life," Bryant said. "I didn't think that there were this many people like this. Homeless. It changed me. Every day I look to bless someone else. Just like these people bless us."
Retan was among 35 concerned community caregivers who met in November 2005 to devise a plan to feed the hungry on weekends.
"On weekdays, the shelters are able to serve anyone off the street," Retan said. "On weekends, shelters just serve the people staying there."
Homeless people were missing meals or scrounging for scraps in Dumpsters, he said.
The Table continues to flourish efficiently with no director, board or by-laws and no meetings.
The 35 who started the technology-driven homespun hospitality has grown to an e-mail list of 400, Retan said. The core are church-related groups, he said. The list includes other agencies, lots of youth organizations and groups of friends.
"There's always room for one more," Retan said. "That's our motto. And there's room for more volunteers, too. Plenty of room at The Table." For more information, call Retan at 205-324-6502.--KIM BRYAN (kbryan@bhamnews.com)
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