Our History
First Presbyterian Church hosts a hot, sit-down dinner known as “Daily Bread,” for the food-insecure of our community, on the first and third Thursdays of the month. During the summer months these dates may change. Taken from the lines of the Lord’s Prayer, the name reminds us of our basic human need for food, as well as the bread of life offered us in Jesus Christ. Scripture is full of accounts of Jesus and the disciples breaking bread and sharing community, and that forms the basis of the Daily Bread meals at our church. The goal is to serve guests a nutritious dinner with dignity in a warm and welcoming environment. Kimberley Moore, a member of FPC, began the program in 2003 to serve the hungry in our city. When the Moore family moved away in 2004, Shelly Vangsnes kept the program going at FPC. The first dinners were held at Miss Trudy's restaurant downtown with FPC and AGAPE Temple volunteers offering rides and hosting the dinners. After several years at Miss Trudy’s, the restaurant closed and the property changed hands, precipitating a move to our church fellowship hall. We continued to provide dinners with the help of another restaurant in Conway known for its ample and wholesome meat and vegetable lunch plates, with the cook and owner donating her time after hours to prepare the dinners, an FPC family paying the cost of the food, another family providing desserts. Special features of this program are that it is a served meal as opposed to a cafeteria-line soup kitchen; volunteers are also encouraged to eat with Daily Bread guests and get to know them; a prayer list is maintained for special concerns; church van transportation is provided for those who need it; and church families, youth, and college students can assist as volunteers.
Initially, flyers describing Daily Bread were distributed to laundry mats, grocery store bulletin boards, clinics, human service agencies and in food pantries to advertise the dinners to the target population. Today, flyers are provided to some of the same locations and to the participants to share with their family and neighbors, and we typically serve 50-60 guests at each meal. Other churches have taken notice, and for several years, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church provided sack lunches “to go” for Daily Bread guests to take with them to work the next day. In August 2010, First United Methodist Church began a sister program called Amazing Grace Cafe on the Thursdays opposite Daily Bread, so community guests know their families can have a good, hot meal every Thursday night at one church or the other.
The effort has been led by church member Shelly Vangsnes but now many members help coordinate everything—menu selection, food purchase and preparation, volunteer notifications, transportation, serving, clean-up and administration. Food has been donated in the past by Aramark at UCA, Hendrix College, and Holly’s Country Cooking has given deep discounts on purchased food. Church members have generously given entree's, desserts and monetary contributions. A small amount is allocated in the church’s annual budget for food costs, and several donors have made Daily Bread a priority, but funds ebb and flow, and more funds are always needed. If you would like to support this mission, you may make a check payable to First Presbyterian Church with Daily Bread on the memo line.
Initially, flyers describing Daily Bread were distributed to laundry mats, grocery store bulletin boards, clinics, human service agencies and in food pantries to advertise the dinners to the target population. Today, flyers are provided to some of the same locations and to the participants to share with their family and neighbors, and we typically serve 50-60 guests at each meal. Other churches have taken notice, and for several years, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church provided sack lunches “to go” for Daily Bread guests to take with them to work the next day. In August 2010, First United Methodist Church began a sister program called Amazing Grace Cafe on the Thursdays opposite Daily Bread, so community guests know their families can have a good, hot meal every Thursday night at one church or the other.
The effort has been led by church member Shelly Vangsnes but now many members help coordinate everything—menu selection, food purchase and preparation, volunteer notifications, transportation, serving, clean-up and administration. Food has been donated in the past by Aramark at UCA, Hendrix College, and Holly’s Country Cooking has given deep discounts on purchased food. Church members have generously given entree's, desserts and monetary contributions. A small amount is allocated in the church’s annual budget for food costs, and several donors have made Daily Bread a priority, but funds ebb and flow, and more funds are always needed. If you would like to support this mission, you may make a check payable to First Presbyterian Church with Daily Bread on the memo line.