How many people can say the direction of his or her life changed after a chance meeting with someone at 3:00 AM over breakfast at Denny’s?

Mark Davis's did when he met Pastor Bill Ritter.

Around the holidays Mark would always feel a nudge to volunteer at a food pantry. But he never thought it would become his full time avocation. Yet he felt God tugging at him as he interacted with many of the elderly who were unable to afford nutritional food and were too embarrassed to admit their need for help.

One morning in April 2003, Mark awoke at 2:00 AM, amazingly alert and with this uncanny sense that he needed to get up and go for breakfast. Who would think that divine providence would occur in the middle of the night while eating a Denny’s grand slam breakfast? There he was sitting two chairs down from a man who was sharing his passion for feeding the elderly in their community, Bill Ritter. That morning Bill shared his desire to build a local food bank for the working poor in Galveston. Bill died in February and later Mark left his job to work full time to implement that vision.

Galveston's Mayor proclaimed May 26th as “Pastor Bill Ritter Day” honoring the life of a man who had a passion for simply feeding hungry people. Bill’s vision of building a food bank in Galveston is being realized today through the efforts of Gleanings from the Harvest for Galveston. On May 22nd, Gleanings from the Harvest for Galveston County made good on Bill’s last request to take his twenty frozen turkeys and “Feed Galveston’s Hungry.” Gleanings and friends did that and more, distributing a full Thanksgiving-style meal for over 300 people on the front lot of Carnes Brothers Funeral Home.

To many people involved in community outreach and to many of those in need in Galveston, Bill Ritter was well known and revered. Pastor Bill spent his life serving the disadvantaged and lived the passion for feeding the hungry.  His vision was to establish a food bank here in Galveston to help the many worthy social service organizations provide meals and nutritional food source for the children, the elderly and the working poor.  In May 2003, Pastor Bill brought together a team of dedicated volunteers to officially establish Gleanings From The Harvest and implement the vision to live out the Biblical command in Deuteronomy 24 which has evolved into Gleanings' Mission Statement:

"We are united by God to seek the gleanings from the harvest.
We seek individuals and organizations prepared to give from their harvest.
We use these gleanings to supplement the needs of the "alien, fatherless and widow,"
that are among us."