by Jiameng Sun ’20

In the basement kitchen at the First Baptist Church of Waterville, Ronald Woodbrey and his wife Nancy were making sandwiches. Though there were just two of them, they had to make more than 150 before 3:00 pm when people who needed the sandwiches would come. Ron and his wife were the only two volunteers at the time, and there was no stable source of funding for the sandwich program either. Yet every Saturday, there were forty people who came to the church to get the food they needed. Looking back at that afternoon, it is hard to believe that the Saturday Sandwich Program now has six regular volunteers who made 6,794 sandwiches last year. 

Ron had a successful career in business management, but he felt unsatisfied working hard only for his family and himself. Ron wanted to do more with his life in retirement, especially for others. He started to study the Bible to figure out how to do that and, in response to feeling God’s love, he became a Christian. 

Ron followed God’s direction and sought to help people in need. After talking with food program leaders in Waterville, he realized there was no food available on Saturdays. In preparation for launching the First Baptist Church’s Saturday Sandwich Program, Ron volunteered at the longstanding Unitarian Universalist Church program for two summers. Even so, Ron found that it was not as easy to run a sandwich program as it looked.

Ron’s first challenge was the lack of regular volunteers. For the first few weeks, many volunteers offered help, but not many were able to come consistently. Sometimes, it was only Ron and his wife who made and distributed all the bagged meals. After several years, Ron has now lined up regular volunteers who provided 1,674 multi-sandwich meals in 2018.

Ron now has a new goal for the program: he wants to serve hot meals during the winter. Offering a hot meal can not only warm people up but also provide a chance for people to sit down and talk with one another. Unfortunately, there is no space in the First Baptist Church for volunteers to cook hot meals. Ron is looking for organizations or individuals who can help him realize this goal. 

Through it all, Ron’s faith in God supported him to keep going. He talked about his faith in a report about the sandwich program: “As we have administered the program, every week we see God at work. When it looks like we will be short of volunteers, an unexpected volunteer arrives. When it looks as if we may not have enough food, we have just enough to serve everyone. Most of the people we serve are very appreciative of this program. We are constantly reminded that God provides all that we need.”