By J.A. Dunn

JACKSONVILLE — The loss of unsold items at the Panera Bread restaurant at Jacksonville’s Roosevelt Square is the gain of the community surrounding Avondale United Methodist Church.

Each Monday night Bill Hammond arrives at the restaurant less than two miles from the church and picks up bags of surplus bagels, breads, cookies, muffins and pastries that did not sell at the close of business.

Hammond, lay leader at the church, said the partnership with Panera began after the business opened April 15, creating the church’s bread ministry. Three locations close to the church receive the much-appreciated items.

The items fill "four good-size" bags, Hammond said. He said it requires about an hour and a half to pack the bags for distribution and another hour to make stops at a United Methodist-sponsored day care, another child-care facility and a neighboring Habitat for Humanity community.

"I just like doing for others," Hammond said. "I think just by giving them the bread it’s saving them money. It makes me feel good to know I am helping people."

The Rev. Jennifer Stiles Williams, pastor of the Avondale church, was pleased to know the congregation had the bread ministry when she was appointed to the church earlier this year. She said it reminds her of Acts 2:44-47 (NRSV): "All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their numbers those who were being saved."

"I think it’s wonderful that the church is partnering with a local business," Stiles Williams said. "This church is really trying to find ways to reach into the community. This church wants practical ways that it can show God’s love."

The partnership is also good for the Roosevelt Square Panera Bread store, whose company has a national policy to donate its surplus items. And it didn’t have to look far for a partner because the church approached it.

Kevin O’Brien, the store’s manager, said the weekly donations are part of the company’s culture that individual stores work with local charities in their communities so $150-$700 worth of food items aren’t destroyed on a daily basis.

"Normally, what we try and do is find a couple of food banks or charities," O’Brien said.

Hammond said regardless of how the two entities got together, they are making a difference in the community, which is one of the goals of the church’s mission outreach ministry.

In addition to the bread ministry, Stiles Williams said the church would like to build a prayer garden and wall in the community where residents can place their prayer requests. In yet another outreach effort members bring canned goods and place them on the altar during communion. They are later taken to a local food bank.

Hammond doesn’t want to stop with the bread ministry now that he’s retired from a 40-plus-year career with CFX Railroad. He said he’s just getting started in church and community organizations. Next on his list is adult literacy.