When Dr. Rudy Rasmus and Pastor Juanita Rasmus first opened St. John’s United Methodist Church, they had to step over a homeless man to unlock the front door. This seemingly small action was a pivotal moment that sparked the birth of Bread of Life Inc., (BOL) an compassionate non-profit organization that has undoubtedly made a significant impact in serving others with respect and dignity. In its early stages, BOL provided HIV testing and basic needs assistance of shelter, food, and clothing to those living in the streets of Downtown Houston; most being veterans and those who’d been without housing for an extended period of time. As of today, they have numerous helpful programs and a year-round disaster relief that supports families and individuals in need from all over Harris County and surrounding areas.
Disaster Relief
When Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and Louisiana in 2017, Bread of Life had their doors open to help with essential needs as soon as the storm passed. Already having served the community for over two decades, BOL was the first place volunteers, donators, and those in need of help thought to go. From sun up to sun down it was a steady stream of donation trucks and people coming to get help while enduring the hurricane’s aftermath. It was at this time Dr. Rasmus knew Bread of Life was ready to expand its capacity in order to help people not only during the time of disaster, but between storms when recovery looks different for everyone between the storms. Dr. Rasmus commented on the matter.
“We’ve always been around when disaster strikes. We’ve always shown up for the community. Our Harvey disaster relief efforts were a pillar of help, but would happen after this, between the storms, between disasters? We needed to bridge those moments together for true community recovery. We were introduced by Tina Knowles to Matthew 25 Ministries in Cincinnati. We knew right away we would need capacity for the products coming from this partnership.”
The new BOL warehouse was soon moved from its site at St John’s Downtown, to a 18,000 square foot warehouse near the George R. Brown Center. Warehouse staff and volunteers work tirelessly every day to prepare for monthly distributions. The first and third Saturdays of every month are distribution days where anyone who signs up has access to their contactless drive-through. There, those who arrive receive food and home supplies at no cost. After the recent demise of Hurricane Beryl, over 2 million residents were without electricity. Nearly every street and highway was covered in glass, trees, and debris the high winds displaced. Gas stations were scarce, grocery stores were empty, lives were lost, and safe housing was scarce for over a week as the city struggled to navigate without power. As expected, the Bread of Life was in action at soon as the last raindrop fell. In one day BOL successfully organized helping hand to over 8,000 people after the massive loss. By day three they’d already partnered with the Houston Rockets to supply Houston residents at the Toyota Center with boxes of essential supplies. By the end of the week, BOL still made room to work their annual partnered event with Starbucks to help another 7,000 people with food, supply boxes, and school supplies for the nearing school year. Cars lined up for nearly three miles with people who knew Bread of Life would have the help they needed. It doesn’t stop there thought. A strong network of agencies have evolved from the Bread of Life’s continual outreach that include community health fairs, housing for the chronically homeless, job-readiness programs and so much more. The Tenemos buildings are housing developments for chronically homeless individuals to have a safe home and connection to social services that help improve their quality of life. The Bread of Life Academy provides life development and job training to marginalized communities, giving students an opportunity to become certified phlebotomists, community health workers, and soon to be added, medical assistants. Dr. Rasmus stated, “Tenemos is now part of the BOL family. We see them as part of this one network of agencies that are evolving out of the BOL. In each property, our people in a large sense would have been recipients of our services. The BOL academy evolved out of a grant opportunity that happened with Quest diagnostics. In our conversations with quest one of their constant needs is phlebotomists. So they actually helped us two years ago establish the Bread of Life Academy where we not only train phlebotomist but community healthcare workers within the next year were gonna expand to include medical assistance.” Just recently, Bread of Life was awarded a grant from the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston and Harris County that will begin a new branch of their selfless work called Project H.O.P.E that will “bridge the gaps in mental health services and address the urgent needs of individuals requiring healing, outreach, prevention, and education.”
Bread of Life has proven to have a never ending harvest of love for the community.
After retiring as pastors, Dr. Rudy Rasmus and wife, Pastor Juanita Rasmus, continue to stay connected to the non-profit and all of its branches. He discussed that connection with Texas Trend Magazine, expressing optimistic light on BOL’s continued ability to help others. “When we retired from church ministry we knew it was time to prepare the next generation of leadership. Too often I’ve seen leaders stay in their roles too long without empowering younger people to come in behind them. Pastor Tiffany, our successor, has done phenomenal work. You know, growth and evolution is not only an integral part of life, but it is also an integral part of organizational growth as well. With that being said, we are now expanding BOL outreach to Tulsa OK. Towards the end of August we’ll be doing our first distribution in the nation’s capital Washington, DC.” Members of St. John’s Methodist Church have watched the Rasmus’s maintain integrity and compassion through every stage of growth the Bread of Life has endured. Their love and empathy for people pours over into the staff and supporter of Bread of Life. With over 30 years of community work, Bread of Life has made a tremendous impact on an immeasurable amount of members and visitors. Their mission to restore, inspire, sustain, and educate the community with hope, dignity, and love is a deep rooted seed that’s sure to grow and spread like wildfire for years to come.
