Agnes Hubbard took a moment last Saturday night to reflect on the humble beginnings of Hill Country Daily Bread Ministries.
Started 23 years ago in a garage by the El Chaparral Restaurant, Hubbard and her cohorts, then, never could have imagined this night’s event — a large tent with more than 1,000 people seated underneath, assembled to hear Hubbard and others extol the virtues and vision of the program.
The organization’s March 2 “Vision” dinner serves as the primary fundraiser for a program that helped 70,000 people in eight counties in 2023, distributing more than 900,000 pounds of food to those in need.
“I look around and see old friends, people who were with us from the beginning when we were small and ugly, we did not look like this,” she said, gesturing out among those who attended the dinner, silent auction, live auction and concert.
“I know that if we were sitting in those garages today, we would wonder, ‘Gosh, how would it be to serve 70,000 people a year? How would it distribute almost $60 million of product to people a year, in the name of Christ?’” she said.
“I don’t think we would have said all those things. But we did know we had a clear vision to help the lost and the hurting. And that was in the will of God,” she said.
HCDBM now sits on 10 acres of property on Cascade Caverns, its large barn-like structure housing a 40,000 square-foot warehouse and a dozen or so offices.
The organization’s mentoring ministry, Stand By Me, was not even a glimmer in their eye, yet now is set to expand into a new structure on the HCDBM campus.
At Saturday’s “Vision” dinner, Boerne Champion student Edras Sevilla, 16, said he is in his fifth year in the program.
Sevilla’s mother fell ill, forcing him to “put on my big boy pants,” he said, falling into a world of helping his mother, going to school, coming home, caring for his mother and siblings, “and repeat that every single day.”
“I felt like my childhood was slipping away from me,” Sevilla said. The summer of 2020 is when he was introduced to Stand By Me and its Summer Leadership Academy.
Sevilla thanked the academy, and mentor Jonathan Mallard, for the past 1 ½ years of mentorship. Sevilla thanked the Lord for his current well-being.
“I thank God because, without Him, I don’t know where I’d be in life right now,” Sevilla said.
A live auction saw bids placed on everything a ski trip in Colorado to a seven-day Belize getaway to a five-course dinner for 20 at The Dienger Bistro and Boutique. Hundreds of silent auction items were awarded — with 100% of the funding going to the Hill Country Daily Bread Ministries.
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