Welcome to The Lord's Diner E-Newsletter!

Thank you for partnering with us. Our donors, volunteers, and community supporters have paved the way to ensure food security throughout our city. Over the past 21 years, our creative approach to feeding the hungry has developed into two brick-and-mortar diners, three food trucks, a food pantry, a homeless outreach program, a school backpack program, a community garden, and a satellite location in Pittsburg, Kansas. We are excited to share our story and look forward to continuing it with you!

Did You Know?

The Lord’s Diner has a community garden located behind our South Hillside location! Staff members tend and care for the garden throughout the spring, summer and fall. All of the produce grown is distributed to the guests who visit the South Hillside location for dinner. Potatoes, peppers, cabbage, pumpkins and tomatoes are currently growing in our raised beds thanks to Dutch's Greenhouse. Dutch’s Greenhouse, located at 5043 South Seneca Street, has been the primary provider of plants, fertilizer and other gardening necessities. We are so incredibly grateful for this continuous support!

Friends of the Diner

"I work construction but my boss is not working a lot of us right now. The Lord's Diner is a big help, they have fed me and my family several times. A lot of people are suffering and this really helps the whole community. "

-Trent

What's New In Our Dining Rooms

After years of dust collecting on tables and chairs, we have finally wiped them off and have reopened our dining rooms! However, it’s not exactly the same as before. We are continuously monitoring this new approach and trying to make the best possible decisions for our guests with our available resources.

Broadway Diner

All meals at our Broadway location are served in Styrofoam trays. Guests may eat inside or take their meal to go.

Hillside Diner

At our Hillside location, guests are given the choice to eat inside with real dishes or take a Styrofoam tray to go.

The Lord's Diner Pantry

When The Lord’s Diner Pantry opened in December of 2020, our Homeless Outreach Program, which serves lunch Monday thru Friday from 10 A.M. to noon, would serve 40-60 each day. Almost three years later the popularity of this initiative has grown exponentially and is currently serving an average of 200 guests each morning.

In conjunction with the Homeless Outreach Program, The Lord’s Diner Pantry also provides supplemental groceries to our neighbors in the downtown area. This Weekly Grocery Pantry, which began with 10 households receiving supplemental groceries, is now providing groceries including fresh bread, eggs, meat, cheese and milk, to over 60 households in the downtown area.

With the rapid growth of the Pantry, we are in need of items to restock our shelves. Click here to check out our Amazon Wishlist!

TLD Backpack Program Review

The Lord’s Diner Backpack Program’s inaugural year has come to an end. During the 2022-2023 school year The Lord’s Diner Backpack Program, with the help of the Kansas Food Bank, provided packs of shelf-stable food to over 200 students at nine Catholic schools in and around Wichita. It has truly been an honor to be involved in this service to the youth and we are looking forward to continuing it as long as it is needed.

If you wish to support the Backpack Program, please visit our website at www.thelordsdiner.org

Volunteer With Us!

As we leave our Covid-era style serving in the past and begin to reopen our dining rooms with real dishes and silverware, we are looking for more volunteers to respond to the needs of the hungry. Volunteer opportunities are available 7 days a week at various times and locations.

If you are interested in serving with us, please contact Mary Claire at volunteer@thelordsdiner.org.

"The misconception is that people want a free ride. Once you work here you realize that there are people hurting. You see them out there sleeping on the streets, they're not out for a free ride, they're just hurting, they've got issues in their lives and sometimes you don't realize it."

- Steve, volunteer