Rev. Alfred Boeddeker; Founder of Social Programs in Bay Area

The Rev. Alfred Boeddeker, founder of St. Anthony’s dining room, has died at age 90.

Boeddeker died Jan. 1 after suffering a heart attack several weeks earlier and a mild stroke just before Christmas.

Boeddeker, a Franciscan priest, opened the dining room doors on Oct. 4, 1950, after discovering that when people using food vouchers went to receive their meals, they were handed food through the restaurants’ back doors.

On the first day, the dining room served 350 meals. Today, volunteers serve an average of 2,100 meals a day.

From the dining room sprouted several other programs for the city’s downtrodden, including educational programs, a health clinic and housing for seniors.

Boeddeker was born in San Francisco and baptized at St. Boniface Church. His family moved to Oakland after the 1906 earthquake.

At age 18, he joined the Franciscans as a novice at St. Elizabeth’s Friary in Oakland. He studied further in Santa Barbara and was ordained a priest in 1927.

Boeddeker worked at the Old Mission Santa Barbara and St. Raphael Church in Goleta and went on to teach theology.

He taught at the Franciscan Theologate in Santa Barbara for 15 years and then returned to San Francisco as pastor at St. Boniface in 1949. He retired as executive director of the St. Anthony’s Foundation in 1980.