Bread Bank Blessed by Multiplying of Loaves

The Rev. Jerry Barquera does more than preach the word of God. He provides many with their daily bread.

“It’s a blessing to have someone like Father Jerry out here to help the community,” said Terry Nuno as she collected a few loaves of fresh wheat bread from Barquera’s Whittier bread bank. “Bread is something essential. It’s breakfast, lunch or dinner. It’s great that he does this.”

The Jehovah Jireh Bread Bank has operated quietly in a small church in Whittier for almost four years, growing every day thanks to what Barquera describes as a series of “blessings from God.”

“We have grown every day since we started this,” said Barquera, who speaks passionately about the Bible and the many loaves of bread stored in the tiny church on the 11400 block of East Whittier Boulevard, flanked by a vacant lot and a paint store. “Sometimes it feels like we are going to explode with all this bread.”

The church, which operates under World Harvest Ministry, is easy to overlook when driving down busy Whittier Boulevard, but close to 200 residents stop by on Fridays to pick up bread during the first-come, first-served distribution. Some also help Barquera throughout the week with his bread pickups and drop-offs.

Volunteer Ray Flasco, 56, discovered the church and bread bank about three years ago and has helped ever since. Flasco, who owns a carpet cleaning business about a block from the church, walked in one day, and Barquera explained to him what all the bread was about.

“I think it’s fantastic what Jerry is doing,” said Flasco, who usually accepts a few loaves of bread in return for carpet cleaning at the church. “He spends a lot of time here and he has helped make this bread bank a success.”

The giveaway has expanded like a nice sourdough, making bread storage much more difficult.

The church is not traditional. The building once held a business, and there are no stained-glass windows, no large double doors. It has enough pews to comfortably seat 100, and parishioners sometime share the pews with loaves of white and wheat bread. Hundreds of loaves are stacked in the back of the church.

Barquera’s congregation has grown accustomed to the mixed scents of potato, sourdough and raisin bread during prayer services.

Barquera and volunteers at his church hand out more than 6,000 loaves of bread each week to about 25 churches in the area, a few senior homes, two Veterans of Foreign Wars posts and the Salvation Army. Some of his regular customers are officials of a Tijuana prison, good for 800 loaves every Monday.

It’s a tough job sometimes, says Barquera, but “the rewards are worth it.”

From Monday through Saturday, Barquera and others will make about four trips to bakeries in La Mirada, Montebello and Pico Rivera to pick up bread. Lately, Barquera also collects boxes of Entenmann’s pastries from local bakeries. “The kids love them.”

The Rev. Joe Reyna from East Los Angeles has worked with Barquera for about three years, helping him when things first began to pick up. Reyna, known in the community as “Father Rock,” does all he can to make sure the bread gets to its destination, whether it calls for arriving at a bakery at 6 a.m. or fixing the starter on the church’s station wagon to make the trip.

“There is so much bread that we have to pick up every day,” said Reyna. “Sometimes it looks like it is too much bread that we have, but in the end, we give it all away.”

It was much slower in the beginning. In his first year, Barquera had only 125 loaves guaranteed each week from a local bakery, and they went primarily to parishioners of his church. The 60-year-old pastor continued to ask bakeries and markets if they would help stock his bread bank and some agreed, such as Bimbo Bakeries in La Mirada, which donates about 3,000 loaves a week.

“We were blessed that we were able to get the bread,” said Barquera. “Bimbo bakery has been great since the beginning.”

Then more blessings. Local markets gave him orange and fruit juices to pass out with the bread. Bags and bags of donated clothing and shoes sit in Bible study rooms. Now Barquera is trying to save enough money to rent a warehouse to store his bread.

Also, Barquera has embarked on a side gig: repairing old, discarded bicycles for children. He has about 50 rusting, BMX-style bicycles behind the church just waiting for a new set of tires and a fresh coat of paint.

“These bikes may not look like much,” Barquera said, “but they are going to make a young child extremely happy. Plus, many of these families just do not have the money to pay for a new bike.”

About 18 months ago, it was another blessing that saved the bread bank from being toast. A closed-down glass and mirror shop next door caught fire, and as the flames started to spread, Barquera and his neighbors desperately grabbed garden hoses to protect their church. Firefighters saved the day, arriving just as the fire started singeing the church roof.

A hand-painted “Bread Today” sign, put out Friday mornings, advises the community that the doors of the Jehovah Jireh Bread Bank are open. Lines of people then go through and pick out everything from hamburger and hot dog buns to sandwich bread. Some of the bread is valued at close to $4 a loaf at markets. Barquera accepts donations, but they are not required.

And although the bread bank is officially open on Fridays, if people show up on another day, they are not turned away.

“If someone needs bread, we will not turn them down,” Barquera said. “The bread is for them.”

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The Jehovah Jireh Bread Bank is at 11428 E. Whittier Blvd. Bread is distributed to the public on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.