The Bread Lady and 'The Porch' help keep the needy fed

Ask Shauna Devenport how to make the world a better place and she'll direct you to the front porch of her lower Marmalade neighborhood home and several rows of veteran cardboard boxes awaiting duty.

Depending on the day, these large, sturdy boxes are spilling over with breads and cakes. Or they're brimming with packaged tortillas. Sometimes they hold canned goods and baby formula.

More important is that they're filled and refilled continually, which is a testament to Devenport's tireless efforts spanning the better parts of two decades. This particular Sunday is no exception.

She has just completed her appointed rounds, collecting a variety of edibles banished from store shelves for overstaying their freshness dates — 18 boxes of mostly baked goods, plus a couple of lugs of zucchinis riding shotgun.

It's a typical haul — nothing like back in the day, mind you — for the 50-something grandmother known to many as "The Bread Lady."

Everything gathered will be placed out on "The Porch," which is something of a local landmark for folks down on their luck. Neighbors and strangers alike have an open invitation to take what they need gratis. No strings. No sermons. No questions asked.

Devenport has also branched out into a line of apparel taken from the Rescue Mission's donated surplus. So there are usually a couple of boxes of repurposed clothing for visitors to choose from as well.

"I feel if it comes to me, it'll be used by someone. I really believe that," said Devenport, who's reticent to turn anything down.

Sometimes it makes for some head scratching, like determining the highest and best use for a wedding gown that found its way into her possession. But those are "good" problems to have to solve, she says.

During an extended lull between visitors, Devenport correctly predicts that once the thermometer starts dropping, this day's bounty will quickly disappear.

That's when her "Garden of Many Flowers," currently dominated by immigrants from Russia, Bosnia, Croatia and other former Eastern bloc nations, Latin America and Nigeria, will be in full bloom.

The garden's makeup, of course, is subject to change according to the geopolitical madness du jour. Cutbacks to social services, or worsening economic conditions, such as the nation is now experiencing, have an impact too.