Bread Delivery

WE NEED VOLUNTEERS! 

The St. Christina Bread Program has been a low-profile ministry in the parish for over twenty years. Members pick up leftover bakery products from several Panera restaurants and deliver them to several food pantries. The program is in need of volunteers to assist. The operation would require the participants to pick up the products and/or deliver them to the pantries. The frequency of trips would depend on the number of volunteers involved in the program. Currently it is approximately once a month. Anyone who would like more frequent involvement could be accommodated.

Those interested may call Jerry Kennedy at 773-330-1829 for further information.

The Bread Program volunteers pick up unsold bakery products from three different Panera Bread locations in our area, and distribute the products to numerous shelters and food pantries in the city and suburbs. Our goal is to help as many people as possible with the time and resources we have.

The idea was hatched when the initial Saint. Louis Bread location in the Chicago area opened in the Orland Square Mall. Two members of the old “Soup Kitchen” team noted that the Saint Louis Bread Company proudly advertises its program of donating unsold bakery products to charitable organizations. The manager of the Orland Park location was looking for organizations to accept the donations, and the rest is a continuing history of expansion and success. The program is celebrating 16 years of service to the community.

We could always use another able body to fill out the pick up or delivery schedule, and provide back up for a conflict that may occur on the schedule.

Our success has been on-going for the sixteen plus years of our existence. In the Year 2008, the program picked up and delivered over three hundred thousand dollars worth of bakery products that were destined for the GARBAGE.



The only thing that prevents us from functioning each week is the occurrence of a major holiday on a pick up day. During a typical week, there will be pick-ups and immediate re-deliveries in the A.M., and major pick-ups on Saturday mornings. The Saturday bakery products are stored in the school hall under refrigeration, and are delivered on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings to our grateful recipients. Basically, there is activity on every day of the week, except Sunday.