Some people are legends in a town, Ron and Barbara Evans are two of those people in Fallon. Together they have been the coordinators for the Fallon Daily Bread at the Epworth Methodist Church for the past 17 years. They recently retired at the end of May to pass the baton to the next generation after helping to serve more than 135,000 meals. But the Evans' contributions to the community don't stop there.
Barbara was a Home Economics major in college and taught the subject for many years at the high school. “Doing the food angle was up my alley, and I like to shop.” She said she did all the meal planning, striving to have a mixture of colors and textures in each well-balanced meal. She also kept track of how many meals were served each time.
Ron was the president of the Churchill County School Board in 2010 and during that time he saw many homeless families. “Almost 130 kids were in homeless families then.” Ron taught cabinetmaking and furniture making at the high school for 30 years and was on the school board for 8 years. He built their house, and a few others around town, as well as one in the Reno area for his daughters. He is also a visiting pastor who delivers sermons.
Barbara said, “We met at San Diego State, he was Industrial Arts, and I was Home Ec.” Ron grew up in LA and Barbara was born in Sunnyvale, California. They both lived in the college dorms and just happened to attend the same dorm dance in Barbara's building. It was only two days after Ron got to the school. “I got my roommate, and we went over to the dorm dance. I walked in the door, and there was this young lady that was of interest to me. I didn't date anyone after that. We were together from then on.” The couple will celebrate 55 years together on June 15.
When the Evans' started at the Daily Bread, they were serving in the church's Fireside Room from a tiny kitchen. Barbara said, “We used that little kitchen and served 24 to 30 people each time and had to wash all the dishes ourselves. When I first got started, one thing that was a real change for me was going from cooking for four to cooking for this many people and trying to scale up my recipes.”
Ron thought back. “We had to move into the bigger room when we started getting up to 150 people, especially on the holidays. Then when COVID hit, we only did go-boxes and the numbers dropped. We're just starting now to have the numbers coming back up to 80 or 90. But I can't stress enough how hard it is to figure out how much to cook. How many hot dogs to cook, or how much casserole to make.” The Wolf Center, as that big room is known, was built specifically for the Daily Bread about two years after the Evans' started there. Barbara said the organization was actually started by Kathy Fraker, Mary Myers, and June Young. “Kathy lined up the volunteers. Mary planned all the meals and did the grocery shopping back then. June still does the books.”
The kitchen is staffed by volunteers who do all the cooking, serving, and clean-up. Some are from the local church groups; others are from organizations such as the Fallon Rotary and the Soroptimists. Monetary donations help pay for equipment maintenance and needs such as washing machines, and new freezers. There are no federal funds available to them, but the City of Fallon is one of their donation sources.
At Fallon Daily Bread, meals are served twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, starting at 5:15 p.m. in the Wolf Center located behind the church at 280 East Stillwater Avenue. Meals are always free and donations are always welcome. It's the only organization providing this type of meal service in town on a weekly basis.
Barbara said, “Ron and I would take turns on meal days. I would go in to open up before 3 p.m., and he would go back to lock up at the end of the meal. The other part of the job is shopping for groceries. Every two weeks, we would go into Costco and Smart and Final, both in Reno as they have the #10 cans and go boxes and most everything else we use.” Daily Bread also receives food donations from places such as the Food Bank. When discussing donations Ron said, “We've had people in the past walk in and say they wanted to donate a cow, and if we paid for the wrapping, we could have all the meat.”
They have two daughters, Cynthia and Karena, who are both biochemists. Ron added, “They had Steve Russell for a teacher in high school, and he got them going.”
Karena Evans said of her parents, “As coordinators, they scheduled the rotating teams who prepare, serve, and clean up two times a week, created the menus, purchased the necessary ingredients and supplies both from Fallon and Reno and took care of the opening and closing of the building each time.”
The Evans still plan to help at the Daily Bread at least one night per month when the Methodist church provides the volunteers. Ron said there's always something to do. When asked if they were now fully retired, Ron said, “Well,” and Barbara responded, “We can help in a pinch. We took our phone numbers down in the kitchen, but he still gets calls from people out of the blue, for food.”
Steve Russell and Lori Crook are the new coordinators for the program.
The phone number for the Fallon Daily Bread is 775.217.2259. More information can be found on their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/people/Fallon-Daily-Bread/100064559774740/.
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