About BoL

Bread of Life Community Center's (BoL) was inspired by the community outreach started under First Lutheran Church's Food and Fellowship program.  The FLC Food and Fellowship program was started by Pastor Richard and Betty Franks in 2006*** as means to connect with the community surrounding First Lutheran Church.  Through this program FLC Food and Fellowship established an open selection community food pantry that offered fresh and nutritional food options.  This led to the creation of a community garden located on FLC's grounds.  Through a partnership with the United Way We Care Cabinet, the food pantry was able to offer toiletry items and with a grant from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) allowed the food pantry to expand their selection and physical space.  The Food and Fellowship program also created a Sunday Supper series in which members of the community in need were invited to take part in a shared meal as well as listening to a variety of invited speakers that would discuss a variety of topics including  positive nutritional choices, maintaining one's mental health, financial literacy advice, among others.

Following the decision to close First Lutheran Church several of the people active in the outreach of the Food and Fellowship program remained committed to continuing the positive community engagement started by Pastor Richard and Betty.  Bread of Life Community Center (BoL) was formed in October of 2023.  FLC's congregation made the decision to transfer the building to BoL and also provide an estimated first year's expenses from the remaining endowment fund to allow BoL to establish their programming and operations.  

The name Bread of Life was chosen in honor of Pastor Richard and Betty's work in the community to provide a sense of fulfillment in the lives of our neighbors.  BoL's goal is to become a TRUE community center with engaging and educational programming throughout the year and events that will foster positivity in the Northeast Bryan neighborhood and beyond.  Within the first few years of operation Bread of Life plans to create after school programming opportunities for the youth in the neighborhood.  BoL plans to continue expanding its programming options in order to benefit as many sectors of the community as possible and to make the most out of the resources at its disposal.