My Brother’s Table feeds more people than ever

With the Heinz plant in Pocatello shutting down, more than 400 people will soon be out of work. One charity in Pocatello said this will add to the increasing number of people it serves.

“You get a hungry kid and you’ve fed the world. What can I say?” said Shirley Perez, director of My Brother’s Table.

At 1:30 p.m. Sunday, more than 90 people stood lining up to grab a warm meal.

Perez said she was seeing more people than ever walk through the door hungry.

“Today there were faces that I have not ever seen before, and I’ve been doing this for a long time,” she said.

Perez is the middle of a five-generation line of family members carrying the torch when it comes to running the My Brother’s Table program through the Trinity Episcopal Church on Sunday afternoons. It’s a program that feeds the needy through donations from the Idaho Food Bank.

“It’s hard to find a job,” she said. “(The community isn’t) hiring, people aren’t working, we can’t get more jobs, so that’s the sad thing about it.”

William Howell is a dishwasher at the local restaurant. He said he needs to get a second job because that job alone isn’t cutting it. For now, he relies on My Brother’s Table to get his meal for the week.

His bills are rising, and he can’t afford to buy groceries sometimes.

“I’m thankful for a place to come and eat — somewhere to eat if you’re starving or something like that,” he said.

Perez said with more people in need, the community is coming together to help in every way it can. She said other church groups in the area – Catholic, Latter-day Saint, Baptist and Methodist – help My Brother’s Table.

My Brother’s Table is open from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Sundays.