A Hunger to Help

The holidays at the home of Jan Haberly and her husband, Ken, are particularly high-spirited. That’s because when family comes visiting, the Haberlys play host to seven grandchildren under the age of 5. “They just all decided to get real busy,” Jan says with a laugh of her three children, Brian, Beth and Brett, and their spouses.

Haberly also has much to cope with at work. In August, she became executive director of the Lord’s Diner, after Wendy Glick stepped down the previous month. Before her promotion, Haberly had been volunteer coordinator the previous six years.

She got hired at the Lord’s Diner after spending years in the restaurant business with Ken. After those stints, “I wanted to go the next step,” she says. “I wanted to do something worthwhile, to give back. I prayed about it and then I saw the volunteer job advertised in the Catholic Advance and went for it.”

Today, the Lord’s Diner has about 7,000 volunteers helping at both locations – 520 N. Broadway and 2825 S. Hillside. In fact, the organization has so many volunteers that it urges those who want to help to call back in a few months or get on a waiting list.

In February, Haberly will be at the helm when the Lord’s Diner celebrates its 10th anniversary. She’s proud that after years of serving paying customers, she’s now serving those who can’t afford to feed themselves.

“These are just people who have hit a roadblock – or several roadblocks – and have no support system,” she says. “They didn’t ask for this, but here they are, anyway.”