JACKSON – The Bread From Heaven Cafe serves a hot meal to individuals in need each Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Bartley Road.
And the volunteers who run the nonprofit organization are planning to continue the legacy of the woman who founded the community group.
In 2019, the cafe served more than 5,000 hot meals and delivered 10,000 food packages to elderly individuals and to families in need in Jackson and surrounding communities.
Helen Ludowig founded the Bread From Heaven Cafe and served as its executive director until she passed away on Feb. 11. Her dream was to provide a place where everyone is welcome to enjoy a hot meal and to offer a food pantry so people could benefit from taking food home.
Andrea Lear and a group of volunteers want to continue what Ludowig started.
“It is a team effort, all the volunteers we worked with when Helen was alive have gathered together and we will keep this going. This is her legacy, this will be in her name,” she said.
Lear said that “from the time she retired, Helen knew she wanted to do something special for needy people. Within a year’s time, she gathered all the information and all the requirements … and opened the kitchen. I think it was May 20, 2016 when we opened and we served maybe 40 people. Now we are up to over 100 people.”
Lear said that on the day prior to her passing, Ludowig was thinking about coming to the kitchen.
“She knew she just could not make it, but she wanted to see everybody, and it is amazing, all these people are here because of her, she drew them all in,” Lear said.
She said the Bread From Heaven Cafe’s efforts involve more than serving a meal on Tuesday.
“In addition to what we do here on Tuesdays, Bread From Heaven Cafe is a seven-day-a-week organization. We feed many people outside of Tuesday. We go to trailer parks, to outreach centers … wherever there is a need for people to get the food who cannot come here for whatever reason. It is a busy-busy organization,” Lear said.
She said Wawa, ShopRite, Panera Bread and Pepsi are among the companies that have donated supplies to support the nonprofit’s effort.
Toni Martorano is a volunteer who works at the pastry table each Tuesday at the Knights of Columbus Hall.
“The meal means a lot to the people we ‘serve,’ but it also means a lot to the people who work here. A lot of us have memories from old times, so we come here and make friends, we see them every week. It is like having a family that does not live close and comes to you every week,” she said.
“I used to come here with my husband when he was alive, and when he died, I started volunteering. The other pastry person and myself are retired nurses, so everybody comes up and says, ‘You know, I have this pain in my ear’ or something like that, always things like that,” Martorano said.
At present, the Bread From Heaven Cafe is in urgent need of space in which donated supplies may be stored. Any individual or organization that may be able to provide space, or who would like to volunteer or donate supplies, may reach out by calling 732-835-0111.
