The Ongoing Miracle: Our Dining Room Program
On any given day, our Dining Room Program can serve between 350 to 1,000 homeless men, women, and children. We strive to provide a warm, nutritious, and filling meal to every guest that enters into the Dining Room for lunch and based on feedback from our guests, we seem to be achieving this goal. Yet,…
Read MoreAnthony & Michelle
Doug Winter, a professional photographer, comes to Loaves & Fishes once a month to take beautiful portraits of our guests. When he has time, he likes to interview the subjects of his photographs to capture the story behind their eyes. Anthony and Michelle started their relationship four years ago on the streets of Sacramento. Together, they…
Read MoreNatalia Haas
Doug Winter, a professional photographer, comes to Loaves & Fishes once a month to take beautiful portraits of our guests. When he has time, he likes to interview the subjects of his photographs to capture the story behind their eyes. Natalia Haas is homeless and recovering from brain surgery. Natalia’s entire stay in the hospital was…
Read MoreElden Davis
Doug Winter, a professional photographer, comes to Loaves & Fishes once a month to take beautiful portraits of our guests. When he has time, he likes to interview the subjects of his photographs to capture the story behind their eyes. Elden is homeless and battling lung cancer. He was diagnosed with lung cancer at Sutter hospital,…
Read MoreMark Ryan
Doug Winter, a professional photographer, comes to Loaves & Fishes once a month to take beautiful portraits of our guests. When he has time, he likes to interview the subjects of his photographs to capture the story behind their eyes. Mark Ryan arrived in Sacramento in the 1980’s and worked as an accounts receivable bank auditor…
Read MoreSam
Doug Winter, a professional photographer, comes to Loaves & Fishes once a month to take beautiful portraits of our guests. When he has time, he likes to interview the subjects of his photographs to capture the story behind their eyes. Homeless for almost 3 years, Sam hasn’t had an hourly paying job since 2009. As we…
Read MoreMorning
At daybreak, the Loaves & Fishes campus off North C Street is a sea of shopping carts, strollers, cars and bicycles. Carts pushed by staffers contain the day’s food, survival and hygiene provisions. On any given day, that down jacket in the cargo may save someone from frostbite. Guests – many carting belongings and camping…
Read MoreA Tale of Two Communities
“The greatest suffering is being lonely, feeling unloved, having no one. I have come more and more to realize that it is being unwanted that is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience.” Mother Teresa This is a Thanksgiving story about two communities: Sacramento’s homeless community, what I call “Second City;” and,…
Read MoreFather's Day Portrait Revisited
Doug Winter, a professional photographer, comes to Loaves & Fishes once a month to take beautiful portraits of our guests. When he has time, he likes to interview the subjects of his photographs to capture the story behind their eyes. Six months ago, I photographed Andrea and many other men for Father’s Day at Loaves &…
Read MoreThanksgiving Care Packages, put together with love
The day before Thanksgiving, John. F. Kennedy High School junior, Victoria Chen, dropped off 192 Thanksgiving care packages at Loaves & Fishes. The care packages contained essentials for guests like hand sanitizer, chap-stick, socks, deodorant and Kleenex. Victoria collected the 990 items for the care packages through donation drives that she speerheaded at the Pocket…
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