Susan McCarthy, one of the original “bread ladies” at the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, eyes the loaves on the table and the cardboard box.
First, she puts in the wheat bread, then the white bread, then the dinner rolls. She carefully manipulates the bread so it fits tightly in the box, which she carries to an electric scale. Each must weigh between 15 and 16 pounds.
She has an eagle eye. She rarely misses her mark.
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“I’ve been doing this so long, I have a pretty good feel of what needs to be in here,” said McCarthy, who is approaching 80 and is one of the original members of the group that comes every Wednesday to pack donated bread for distribution to food pantries across Lake and Porter counties.
“Everybody on staff loves Wednesdays whenever they’re here,” said Emily Cutka, the food bank’s director of communications. “It brings positive vibes and reminds us all of why we’re doing this work.”
Although the “bread ladies” are just a few of the hundreds of people who volunteer at the food bank each year, they are special.
“They’re kind of like a staple. If they’re not here, you definitely notice the difference,” said Chanda Dixon, the program/volunteer manager. “They work so well together and it’s really nice having them. Their energy and their presence make a difference.”
Once the group arrives, they get the job done.
“They’re pretty much like a well-oiled machine,” Dixon said.
They align several white granite folding tables for a makeshift production line. The starting point is the cardboard boxes and the electric scale is the finishing point. Crates of bread stacked over 6 feet high tower behind them.
“They know the system,” Jaymie Welborn, volunteer coordinator, said. “They’re definitely an integral clog in the volunteer mission.”
On a recent Wednesday, they packed 40 boxes. That is over 600 pounds of bread that will be dispersed throughout the community.
As each bread lady enters the warehouse, she is greeted with a hug and an echo of cheerful hellos.
“It’s like a community, we’ve become good friends,” McCarthy said.
“It’s what we call fellowship meetings,” said Jean Wilburn, one of the two original bread ladies.
“I feel that we are doing something in our communities around Northwest Indiana, helping people that don’t have or can’t have,” she said.
In 2015, 12.7 percent, or 15.8 million American households, were food insecure, meaning they lacked the resources to put enough quality food on the table for all household members, according to the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
At 14.8 percent, Indiana was higher than the national average on overall food insecurity, according to data available for 2013 to 2015.
The bread ladies started as a simple mission trip from HopeSpring Church in Griffith in 2007.
“We started coming to volunteer here once a month, and after I retired and my husband passed away, I suggested we start coming every week,” Wilburn said.
Now, there are about a dozen bread ladies and even a few men.
Rich Czubik, of Merrillville, joined the effort six years ago and is considered the muscle of the group. He is the first one to arrive and sets up their workstations, using a jack lift to pull over the pallets of bread.
“I look forward to my Wednesdays,” Czubik said. “It gives me something to do. I get it set up so they can do what they know how to do.”
Over the years, some bread ladies have left because they are unable to work anymore, Wilburn said, but new people find their way into the group.
“When one drops out, God sends us another one,” she said.
Cutka praises the bread ladies.
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“They just want to give back and do their little bit of good in the world,” she said.
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