How it startedPaano nagsimula
Tita Baby and the rice cookerSi Tita Baby at ang rice cooker
In 1998 the fellowship had thirty members and a borrowed room. One woman decided nobody would go home hungry, and twenty-eight years later she still hasn't changed her mind.
Joy Ilagan · Fellowship secretaryKalihim
The first Sunday Baby Soriano brought food, it was a single pot of arroz caldo and a stack of paper bowls. The service ran long, the pastor's microphone died, and the thirty people in the room were hungry. The pot was empty by 12:15.
The next week she brought two pots. The week after, Tito Rudy's wife brought pancit to keep her company. By Christmas there was a sign-up sheet taped to the fridge.
Each group takes a Sunday
Now every care group cooks on a scheduleting Sunday, roughly once every two months. The group decides the menu. Tita Baby decides whether there is enough rice, and the answer is always no.
I don't care if you came for Jesus or for the lumpia. Sit down first and we'll talk later.
The kitchen rules are on a laminated sheet by the sink: first-timers eat first, lolos and lolas are served at the table, and nobody under sixteen touches the big knife.
Ask Tita Baby why she still does it and she'll tell you about her own first winter in Daly City in 1983, when nobody in her building knew her name. Then she'll ask whether you've eaten.
