Daily Bread

After a quarter-century of feeding the hungry next to the heart of Baltimore's Roman Catholic community, Our Daily Bread is about to move to a new home - on the edge of downtown, adjacent to the city's jail. Renamed the Our Daily Bread Employment Center, the $15 million, 52,000-square- foot facility will expand the offerings of the city's largest soup kitchen far beyond feeding Baltimore's homeless and poor to provide such services as job training. Patrons will "basically see the same meal, but they'll have increased opportunities," says Dennis Murphy, director of the new facility.

The new brick building on the eastern edge of downtown Baltimore looks curiously like a train station, with its arched windows and overhanging roofline. But trains will never stop there. It's home to the Our Daily Bread Employment Center, and it was designed as the starting point for a different sort of journey. Scheduled to begin full operation June 4 after a dedication Thursday, the $15 million building at 725 Fallsway represents an unprecedented attempt by Catholic Charities of Baltimore to fight hunger, unemployment and homelessness.

I DON'T understand the bellyaching about the way things turned out with Our Daily Bread. Sure, the downtown business crowd overstated things by attributing an array of problems -- aggressive panhandling, shoplifting, car break-ins, empty retail space on Charles Street -- to the hundreds of men who congregate at ODB each day. And sure, the symbolism was vulgar -- wealthy white men (Peter Angelos, Jimmy Rouse, retired T. Rowe Price CEO George Collins)...

Clifton M. Janney, 57, Sun employeeClifton M. Janney, who worked in the composing room of The Baltimore Sun for more than three decades and volunteered at Our Daily Bread, died Wednesday afternoon of a heart attack while at work. The Perry Hall resident was 57.Mr. Janney began his newspaper career as a messenger for The Evening Sun in 1957. In 1962, he transferred to the composing room where he worked as a floor boy and later as a proof press operator, machinist apprentice, assistant machinist foreman, compositor and general printer.

Our Daily Bread's soup kitchen will remain at its downtown location for up to three years while Baltimore develops a homeless "campus" in another section of the city, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said yesterday.The future of the Cathedral Street soup kitchen that feeds up to 900 people a day has been unresolved since May when business leaders suggested moving it.Complaints about car break-ins, aggressive panhandling and library loitering combined with Charles Street redevelopment efforts caused business leaders to offer to build a more comprehensive center for the poor elsewhere in the city.

WHEN Catholic Charities' officials announced plans to move Our Daily Bread out of downtown, it said it would take six months to assess feedback.That was three months ago.The plan has already been scrubbed.The Archdiocese of Baltimore, which operates the charity and Our Daily Bread, didn't anticipate the stiff opposition of the Johnston Square neighborhood in East Baltimore, where it planned to move the soup kitchen and expand an existing job-training center. Next time, even at the risk of inflating the price of a prospective site, the host neighborhood needs to be invited into the planning early.

An East Baltimore neighborhood group is challenging plans to move Our Daily Bread from downtown, believing that the Archdiocese of Baltimore and Associated Catholic Charities Inc. are trying to turn their community into a dumping ground for undesirables.Alice M. Coe and other Brentwood Village residents -- in the area bounded by Preston Street, Greenmount Avenue, the Fallsway and Madison Street -- huddled this week at St. Frances Academy to vent frustrations and map a strategy against the move.

After organizing free Thanksgiving dinners for the last 18 years -- including a huge feast yesterday -- Bea Gaddy will step aside as she takes her place on the Baltimore City Council.Gaddy, 66, a longtime advocate for the poor and homeless in East Baltimore, was elected to the 2nd District in November and will take office next month. Her charity organization will continue to run under new leadership."I will give the reins to someone else," said Gaddy, standing outside Dunbar Junior High School yesterday.

The first objections to Associated Catholic Charities Inc.'s plan to move the Our Daily Bread soup kitchen from downtown to East Baltimore are surfacing from an unlikely source: the Oblate Sisters of Providence.The Catholic order operates a high school and convent near the building in the 400 block of E. Preston St. that the Archdiocese of Baltimore is proposing for the new Our Daily Bread site.School operators and the nuns object to not being told about the soup kitchen move and question whether the struggling East Baltimore neighborhood is the best place for an influx of downtown poor.

The Oblate Sisters of Providence distanced themselves late last week from comments made by a fellow nun objecting to moving the Our Daily Bread downtown soup kitchen to East Baltimore.Sister Claudina Sanz, superior general of the order, which has 127 members in the Baltimore area, said Friday that the nuns will work with Associated Catholic Charities Inc. during the relocation.Sanz's comment comes after the Archdiocese of Baltimore was criticized Thursday by Sister Reginald Gerdes, who operates a Cherry Hill senior center.

On August 5, 2009, VIRGINIA (GEE-GEE) CANATELLA; devoted wife of the late Michael S. Canatella; loving mother of Patricia Bent; grandmother of Kelly, Susan, and Katherine; great-grandchildren Eden, Hannah, Courtney, Melody, and Layla. Aunt Gee-Gee to Donna, Don, Barbie, Beth, Bruce, Joan, Johnny, and Peggy; godmother to Spud, Johnny, and Bobbie. Memorial Mass Friday, August 21st at 11 AM in St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD. In lieu of flowers, donations to Our Daily Bread.

The vegetable gardens planted around the city's War Memorial Plaza in front of City Hall have produced more than 1,500 pounds of vegetables for the kitchens of Our Daily Bread, which feeds the homeless. But perhaps just as important is this news: "The garden has been respected," said Melissa Grim, acting chief horticulturist for the city's Departments of Recration and Parks. Except for the odd head of cabbage or sage plant going missing, there has been no theft or vandalism in the multiple beds that surround the plaza.

Our Daily Bread Employment Center, known for its efforts in helping Baltimore's poor change their lives, went through a change itself last weekend. The main eating hall had been cleared of its usual long tables; instead it had high bar tables decorated with gigantic fake flowers and colored lights dancing off the walls. A Carmen Miranda look-alike welcomed guests to "Buenas Noches Buenos Aires," an Argentinian-themed fundraiser. "Kevin chose [the theme] because he thought we'd all be tired of the winter time," said Carolyn O'Keefe, referring to her husband, with whom she was chairing the event.

On January 22, 2009, MARY R. EDWARDS; beloved wife of the late Thomas S. Edwards; devoted mother of John C. Edwards; dear sister of Sr. Ignatius Loyola Reichert, O.C.D. Also survived by nieces and nephews. Friends may call at the family-owned Ruck Towson Funeral Home Inc., 1050 York Road (Beltway Exit 26A), Monday 3 to 5 PM. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated Tuesday 10 AM at the Immaculate Conception Church. Interment Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. The family suggests contributions in her name to Our Daily Bread or The Salvation Army.

Running out of money to buy food, David P. Anderson was among the first to file into the dining room yesterday at Our Daily Bread. Behind him, dozens waited in line on Christmas morning as Anderson sat down to a turkey dinner and reached first for the cranberry relish. But it wasn't until he was walking out of the downtown Baltimore soup kitchen that Anderson learned who had prepared the meal and served it to him. For the 15th year, members of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation stepped in so the usual volunteers, several of them Christians, could celebrate Christmas Day at home with their families.

On August 13, 2008 Richard A. Zanetti. The family will receive friends in the chapel of St. John's Catholic Church, 13305 Long Green Pike, Hydes, MD on Saturday August 23 from 10 to 11A.M. at which time a funeral mass will be celebrated. Interment in the adjoining cemetery. In lieu of flowers contributions may be directed in Mr. Zanetti's name to Our Daily Bread, 725 Fallsway, Baltimore, MD 21202. Inquires to Lemmon Funeral Home of Dulaney Valley, Inc.

On June 16, 2008, LOIS KATHRYN ANDERSON GUILLOTTE, 86; loving wife of the late John Guillotte of Wilmington, DE; devoted mother of Joseph, Kathryn, James, Daniel, Mary and William. Also survived by 15 grandchildren and one great-grandson. A Memorial Mass will be celebrated in the St. Joseph Catholic Church, 101 Church Lane, Cockeysville, MD 21030 on Thursday, June 19, at 12 Noon. All friends and family are welcome. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be directed in Mrs. Guillotte's name to Our Daily Bread, 725 Fallsway, Baltimore, MD 21202.

Polo match benefits charity The Lewis family (Dr. Fred and Mary Agnes Lewis and their children) will present the third annual Ten Oaks Cup Polo Match from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the family's farm, 6005 Ten Oaks Road, in Clarksville. Proceeds from the event will benefit Our Daily Bread, the Baltimore soup kitchen. Gates open at noon. The national anthem will be sung on horseback. Two teams will play a full match (about 11/2 hours) and a half-time event includes riding without reins.

Nellie Frances Maggio, age 91 of Catonsville died Thursday February 28, 2008 at her residence. She was the wife of the late Joseph Anthony Maggio. Nellie had been a life long resident of Baltimore and was the youngest of eight children. She was a 1936 graduate of Southern Baltimore High School. Surviving are two children, six grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Friends and family may call Sunday from 3-5 and 7-9 PM at the Sterling-Ashton- Schwab-Witzke Funeral Home, Inc., 1630 Edmonson Ave., Catonsville.

One in a series of occasional features highlighting people and organizations in the Baltimore area who exemplify the "Spirit of Sharing," The Sun's annual holiday campaign. It's not just lunch. And it still moves the older volunteers to see men and women say grace over their free meal at Our Daily Bread, the downtown soup kitchen run by Catholic Charities. Pat Marani of Parkville has been volunteering here for maybe 17 years - she isn't sure exactly - but it never fails, every day she and her band of volunteers see people giving thanks over warm baked chicken or tuna casserole.