The House of Bread nourishes the bodies, minds, hearts and souls of our guests, while serving as a bridge to other beneficial community resources.

The House of Bread wants to become the first choice of the community in addressing the hunger and nutritional needs of men, women and children. Furthermore, we want to share proven solutions with other agencies who address hunger and nutrition.

Founded in 1983 by Sister Dorothy Kammerer, C.P.P.S., the House of Bread has served a free hot meal to over 1,555,000 men, women and children. Our purpose is to continue to prepare and serve hot, nutritious meals to the ever-increasing number of children, families and seniors who rely on the House of Bread for their daily source of nutrition. Consistent with our mission, we want our guests to be able to use our agency as a point of access to other beneficial community resources that can offer long-term solutions to the problems they are facing. We then are able to serve More Than Just A Meal!

In addition to serving an average of 300 persons who come through our door each day, we are the central food preparation site fro nutritional programs at one adult and four child- serving agencies. These agencies provide after school study and summer study sessions for children. In addition, five additional agencies that wish the House of Bread to provide such meals to children in their programs have been in contact with us. After a review of our meal preparation status, we can state that 10% of the meals served in out dining room go directly to children. The House of Bread also offers health screenings, health resource information, community meetings, as well as access to other agencies that provide case management, housing and mental health resources. Although there are no specific geographical limitations for those we serve, the majority of our guests come from the inner city limits of Dayton, Ohio. Statistics reflect that a large concentration of households in the closest zip codes to the House of Bread are households of less than $8,330 in annual income, with many of these being single parent families with multiple children.

Over the last fiscal year (July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004), the House of Bread served 69,245 meals, an increase of 39% over the previous fiscal year. We are now producing more than 7400 meals each month, with 14% of those meals being delivered to the off site agencies. It is imperative that we continue to meet the demand of our regular guests, as well as continue in our participation in feeding the children of the area. The children that are positively impacted by these meals come from African American, Hispanic and Appalachian Caucasian families with very low incomes, and are in addition to our regular guests, which range from toddler to the elderly. Furthermore, we a re encouraged by the positive response to the expanded Saturday breakfast program targeted specifically for children and their families.

Volunteer opportunities include, but are not limited to, food preparation, serving of prepared meals, clean up, food pick-up/delivery, and many others. Call us to see if we have an opportunity that fits you! Volunteers are needed Monday - Friday from 9 AM - 2 PM on your lunch hour, or part of a day. Opportunities for groups and organizations are encouraged, and can be scheduled by calling us at
(937) 226-1520. Monetary donations are always appreciated, or help us with an item on our wish list.