Hope
[ Good News happening in our community ]
FOR THE HOMELESS
Church Under the Bridge brings refuge to those in need
BY JE SSA M CC LUR E
AS 6 P.M. approaches, dozens of homeless men and women in downtown San Antonio gather to be fed both physically and spiritually from the volunteers at the facility owned by Church Under the Bridge (CUB).
The ministry, that began 23 years ago, serves around 200 meals a night, and has become “the place” for the homeless to find a hot meal, even during a pandemic. “We’ve heard people say, ‘when everybody disappeared, you guys stepped up,’” said Dianne Talbert, executive director for CUB. When the restaurants began to close, especially in the early months of the pandemic, there was a lot of food insecurity, fear and aggression. But Talbert and the volunteers at CUB pumped worship music out into the streets and recited Bible verses to calm the nerves of those who were worried about their next meal. To further ease the need for meals in the homeless population, CUB went from serving meals three nights a week to providing dinner seven nights a week. That meant that the ministry’s 45 to 60 partners, who typically provided a meal once a month, would now need to increase their supply. “We were truly blessed. Our existing partners stepped up to provide a
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meal, even if they couldn’t physically come to our facility,” Talbert reflected. “They would say, ‘give me a mailing address and I’ll pay for a meal.’” Along with the scheduled partners, the ministry was also blessed by other organizations and churches whom they had not worked with before. “We have one church that the pastors are friends of mine. They had never been on our schedule, but starting in the middle of April, they decided to come every Monday. Now they provide several meals a month.” Not only does CUB provide a hot meal to homeless individuals, but they also provide snack bags twice a week, hygiene kits, socks, shoes, clothing pre-bagged by size and gender, and even dog food and veterinarian clinics for their pets. But while the CUB volunteers are working to meet the basic needs of the homeless population, their ultimate goal is to bring them the love of Jesus. “Our original mission was to meet the
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10/12/20 11:52 AM
