Joe Kimball | Star Tribune Staff Writer
November 7, 2004

Lines of hungry people found a new dining spot last week in St. Paul, where they enjoyed hot dogs, ham sandwiches, mashed potatoes and peas heaped onto plastic plates. The free lunches were served from a newly commissioned white panel food truck marked with a sign that says "Jesus Delivers." It has been parked in some out-of-the-way places: under a bridge just east of downtown, near the railroad tracks behind the Union Gospel Mission and on the street next to the Dorothy Day Center.

And the diners, many of them homeless, sent their compliments to the chefs. "It's great eating," Bob Lone Bear said as he finished his ham and potatoes. The nearby Dorothy Day Center serves lunch, too, but at the lunch truck "you get seconds and thirds," he said. "They don't preach to you, either," he said.

The Rev. Peter Rodewald, who runs an evangelical food shelf on St. Paul's West Side, said the truck is his latest effort to bring his ministry closer to the homeless by bringing food to them wherever they stay. His supporters found a truck body in a junkyard, then over two years transformed it into an inspector-approved, mobile food kitchen with stainless-steel counters and portable generators that power a microwave, cookers, a refrigerator and a hot-dog cooker.
Peter Bolstorff, a business owner who has long supported Rodewald's St. Paul Evangelistic Food Shelf, helped design and develop the truck. "Our goal is to find partner churches so we can get a roster of volunteers to run the truck from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day," Bolstorff said. He said the truck is designed both to feed the hungry and to bring them a religious message. The name, Jesus Delivers, conveys both meanings and reminds people of Simon Delivers, the grocery company, he said.

Rodewald said he enjoys talking about the gospel with visitors, although few actually engage him in theological discussions. Richard Bennett, who said he sleeps in a homeless shelter, visited the truck but said he didn't want to eat too much because he's on a health kick -- so he took a banana. Asked if he listens to Rodewald, he said: "Depends on what he's saying." That led to a lengthy discussion between Bennett and Rodewald about what it means to be saved. Rodewald suggested that being separated from God is another form of homelessness. Then they disagreed about whether hope is more important than faith. "I don't have too many conversations that complex, but I'd say only about one-fifth of those who come here to eat don't welcome our message," Rodewald said. "They want to reach out. They're looking for more than food. And I've found that homeless people are generally people just down on their luck. They're not bad people, most of them."

The food truck went into service Oct. 25, parking at noon under the 3rd Street bridge near a camp where several homeless people slept and congregated. For several days, volunteers served hot dogs and beans to the grateful camp members, and each day more appeared when the truck arrived at noon. Last week, though, the team in the truck found no one waiting under the bridge. They later learned that the camp was cleared because of construction of a nearby wildlife park, so they've temporarily moved the operation to the Dorothy Day Center in the afternoon. They fed 150 people or more each day last week. In fact, Friday was hectic, Rodewald said. "We served 500 submarine sandwiches, and there was a steady stream, people wanted seconds. I spent the whole time asking: tuna or cold cuts?" he said. "I was so busy delivering food that I barely had time to deliver the word of God."

Joe Kimball is at 651-298-1553 or joek@startribune.com.