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One day in 1998, Alan Graham was simply having coffee. Four years later he's President/CEO of Mobile Loaves & Fishes, Inc. (MLF), an Austin-based, non-profit organization.

MLF’s shiny white and silver “taco trucks” are a familiar sight to many of Austin,San Antonio, and New Orleans’ poor and homeless, who line up nightly to be served meals of freshly-made sandwiches, fruit, cookies and juice (or hot beverages in cold weather) by volunteers from all walks of life. And it’s not just food that goes on the trucks— toiletries, socks, and prayer cards are also staples.

Prayer cards and rosaries? Yes, this logistically impressive operation started life as the brainwave of six parishioners (including Alan Graham) of St. John Neumann Catholic Church in the affluent west Austin community of Westlake.

"We are a social outreach ministry to the homeless and indigent working poor. Our mission is providing food, clothing and dignity to our brothers and sisters in need", says Alan. Despite over 6,200 volunteers, whohave served over 692,000 meals up to August, 2006, MLF is still run with a frugally paid skeleton staff, comprising Alan, Development Director Leigh Edgar, Administrative Assistant Deanna Pickrell,  part-time Volunteer Coordinator, Ruth Dore, and a telecommuting Communications Coordinator, Vivian Sullivan.

Back to that historic coffee break. "My wife and I were having coffee with a friend, who'd heard how several churches in Corpus Christi were getting together on cold nights to deliver coffee and blankets to the homeless," Alan said. "After sharing this idea with four of the original founders it became evident that this concept was developing momentum. The sixth founder, formerly homeless, became our guide to the streets. We began by going out in our own vehicles. By December of 1998, we had raised enough money to purchase a pick-up truck, which we immediately drove to Dallas to have the catering bed manufactured and installed."

MLF got a terrific boost when the truck was shown to St. John Neumann parishioners in May 1999. "We were not prepared for what was about to happen. Over 150 parishioners came forward to volunteer. By June we were operating on a schedule of 15 runs per month," recalled Alan.

In 2002, MLF expanded - adding trucks at the St. Thomas More and the St. Louis churches, both in Austin. With these additions, three trucks are now scheduled on the streets of Austin every night. In 2004, San Antonio was added by planting a truck at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church and in 2006, our first truck was planted outside of Texas in New Orleans, Louisiana. This same year, another truck was added to the Austin St. John Neumann site bringing the total number of MLF trucks serving our brothers and sisters in need to 8.

As you'd expect in a high-tech town like Austin, technology plays a big role in managing the day-to-day operations at MLF. Through the development of a web based volunteer management and mapping system they are able to manage the large numbers of volunteers and teams going out nightly, ensuring that the trucks do not arrive at the same location on a given night.

Volunteers, efficiently coordinated by the small staff, power MLF. Those volunteers include Truck Teams 7 and 48, who spend about 3 hours of their time each 4th Wednesday manning the evening truck run. Several of the volunteers also make regular monthly financial commitments, setting up a monthly bank draft from their checking accounts.

Modest Bob Karasch, a 50-something Electrical Engineer would blush to be described as a "poster-child" for MLF volunteers - but it's true. Bob is captain of two Truck Teams, helps promote the truck to other parishes, donates a gift-basket to the annual Silent Auction fund-raiser and goes on the annual spring fishing trip to Port Aransas. "All the fish we catch we bring back to Austin, cook and then feed to the homeless. It's a great fundraiser and it's so much fun," Bob said. In his 4 years with MLF, Bob's never had a bad night on the truck. "The night that made the most impact on me was last winter - it was snowing, and it was frightening how many people there were on the street. It was miserably cold and we served blankets, hot chocolate and food until 11:00pm." MLF often turns into a family affair for the Karasch's - on Christmas Day Bob took the whole family out. Wife Beth supports MLF behind the scenes - buying socks to put on the truck, and sweatshirts. Bob's clear about his reasons for devoting his energies to MLF, saying, "some people criticize MLF saying it enables people (to remain reliant on handouts). My answer is, I don't care if I enable 30 people- if I help one person in desperate need, it's been worth it."

Megan Bass, Captain of Truck Team 48 is a busy homemaker and mother of three. Megan and husband Harris ("Hutch") tried to sign-up as MLF volunteers when they first moved to Austin in 2000 - but had to wait until January 2002 when new trucks were added to the program before making their first truck run. "It's a big commitment, and families shouldn't take it lightly," warns Megan. "Not only are you responsible for the truck you're driving, but also for serving food to the needy. And with everyone in the family having such busy schedules - even kids - it can be tough to keep on making that monthly commitment." The 4th Wednesday in January 2003 was one of those schedule-challenged times. However, despite making the truck run without any other help, Megan and Hutch had "a great night. We went to the (John Henry Faulk) Library - it was bitterly cold, and the line for food was endless. We must have served about 70 people, and my hands were frozen, yet the (homeless) men were still so pleasant and courteous." The Bass' signed up for MLF because "we live in a very affluent neighborhood and we didn't want our kids to grow up thinking everyone has cell phones and drives BMWs." When the family goes out on the truck, 14-year-old Davis and 12-year-old Lanham's assignment is to fill the food bags. On Xmas Day 2002, the whole family was roped in - from 6-year-old Shannon (handing out candy), to an 85-year-old family friend visiting for the holidays. "It was one of our best Christmas' ever," said Megan. She has a final word of praise for volunteer coordinator Ruth Dore. "Ruth is awesome - she's perfectly suited to the job, and always has a happy smile."

Mary Wiggins, a legal assistant with an extremely busy work schedule, has volunteered on Truck Team 7 for approximately four years. Like many others at MLF, 44-year old Mary got involved because of a friend, and clearly relishes the opportunity to contribute. "I would recommend it to others because when you hand someone something to eat or drink on a cold winter's night - or anytime - the look of thankfulness in their eyes is wonderful and the feeling you get is unbeatable."

"MLF makes me appreciate what I have and to realize that under different circumstances, I could easily be in their place," said Truck Team 7 volunteer Barbara Springer, a high-tech account manager. Much of Barbara's previous volunteering was "at a distance from the actual individuals who receive the help. I have been very moved by the stories they tell and I now appreciate that you can make a difference one person at a time." Barbara's strongest memory is of "serving a gentleman who said he would like to pay for the food. Although I told him that it wasn't necessary, he told me he wanted to help people who were more hard up than he was. He gave me a pocketful of change to add to the coffers. It was probably most of the money he had."

The author of this article is a two-year veteran of Truck Team 7. My road-warrior husband is now trained to haul back his hotel toiletries every week so they can be donated to the truck's supplies. I've also become an expert at recruiting houseguests to help with MLF. In 2001, our gourmet-cook friends, visiting for Thanksgiving, enthusiastically cooked several Texas-size green bean casseroles for the annual MLF feast, held at Caritas. Last year my mother-in-law's eyes grew wide at the long lines forming outside Caritas prior to the Thanksgiving feast. The pint-sized 76-year-old pitched in, helping serve hot chocolate to wash down the turkey dinner.

Alan Graham himself still volunteers as Captain of a truck team, and takes his middle school students out twice during their program. Asked to sum up Mobile Loaves and Fishes, Alan said, "A whole lot of people are having numerous positive experiences. These experiences are transforming people's attitudes towards the homeless and working poor but the best experiences are coming from those we serve, including Kimberly, who said, "When I see them trucks it means food and it means clean socks and that God is with me."

* Mobile Loaves & Fishes welcomes all volunteers. To find out how you can help, visit www.mlfnow.org

Julie Tereshchuk is a non-fiction writer and editor, based in Austin, Texas. She began volunteering with Mobile Loaves and Fishes in 2001. Contact her at jt@jtworld.biz, by phone at (512) 771-3314, or click on http://www.jtworld.biz/.