Leaders of Our Daily Bread, Denton’s interfaith soup kitchen, reach donors’ hearts through their stomachs during the Denton Arts & Jazz Festival.
Call it the power of a good, sloppy Frito pie. “We call it our ‘Almost World Famous Frito Pie,’” said Terry Widmer, board president of Our Daily Bread, which serves a noon meal to poor and homeless people Monday through Friday on the first floor of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, 300 W. Oak St. “We call it that because we’ve been doing it for several years and people seem to know us out at the park.” Volunteers from the kitchen’s supporting churches &mdash there are 26 &mdash work in three-hour shifts, spooning hot chili onto a paper carton filled with Fritos corn chips, tossing a handful of shredded cheddar on top, and keeping the condiment containers topped off with jalapeno peppers and onions. For Our Daily Bread, the festival is a way to beef up the charity’s operating budget &mdash which means feeding more needy people. The charity has an annual budget of about $114,000. “Last year I think we made between $3,000 and $4,000,” Widmer said. “It costs us a couple of hundred dollars to get meals on the table every day. We serve more than 200 meals a day. Our average is 175 people a day, so we serve a lot of people.” Widmer said the soup kitchen benefits from generous grocery stores and groups that donate food.
She said the soup kitchen has a partner in this year’s festival: Sonic Drive-In.