About Loaves & Fishes
Loaves and Fishes Community was founded in 1989 by Steve O'Neil and Angie Miller, who opened their family home on Jefferson Street to war refugees and people experiencing homelessness. More volunteers stepped forward and one house became three.
Loaves and Fishes is part of the Catholic Worker Movement and incorporates principles of community organizing and empowerment. We believe in the dignity and value of every person and our responsibility to care for one another.
We operate two houses of hospitality for people experiencing homelessness, a no-cost bike shop, and a community street outreach team. We also like to garden and are involved in lots of efforts for a more just community, including support for low-income tenant unions.
Loaves and Fishes is a 100% community-supported project. There are no paid staff, and we don't accept government money.
About Loaves & Fishes Housing Incorporated
Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker community has created a nonprofit organization with the narrow mission of legally owning its houses and providing for the ongoing maintenance and improvement of the structures. Loaves and Fishes Housing Inc. has been registered as a 501(c)3 entity with the federal government.
The nonprofit has a board comprised of half Loaves and Fishes live-in volunteers and half members of our greater community. Board members are: Mark Brown, Shelly Bruecken (treasurer), Polly Edmunds (Secretary), Chelsea Froemke, Tone Lanzillo (co-chair), Doris Malkmus, Diana Oestreich, & Brooke Tapp (co-chair).
We recognize that there are a few of you who deduct donations from your federal taxes in order to reduce the amount of war taxes you must pay. If that is the case and you genuinely wish your money to go toward maintaining our properties, you may now consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Loaves and Fishes Housing Inc.
Early in the Catholic Worker tradition it was considered that communities should not be nonprofits. Now some are and some are not. We choose to keep the tradition of being a simple grass-roots community of people and relegating our property to a nonprofit.