Tracy J. Sukraw Gloria Watt of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul; Ellen Parker, executive director of Project Bread; the Very Rev. Jep Streit, dean of the cathedral and Leslie Gleason, volunteer and 21-year coordinator at the Monday Lunch Program 25th anniversary. Having served thousands of meals to many hundreds of hungry guests over a period of 25 years, the Monday Lunch Program at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston gathered its volunteers on June 2 and paused to give thanks.

“I am so proud that this happens and that it happens at the cathedral,” the Very Rev. John P. Streit Jr., the cathedral’s dean, told the assembly. “I’m proud that people are welcomed and fed. I’m proud that people help us do this and that we don’t do it on our own. We would not have succeeded.”

The anniversary celebration brought together volunteers from the cathedral, its four partner parishes—Trinity Church in Concord, St. Michael’s Church in Milton, Christ Church in Needham and St. John’s Church in Newtonville—and neighboring Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, which has been sending helpers for about 15 years. Each group is responsible for a particular Monday of the month, and lunch gets served even on holidays and no matter the weather.

Ecclesia Ministries, which provides clothing and support services to guests, was also recognized.

Everyone introduced themselves by name and their Monday of the month, some having come just a few times and some faithfully for many years. “Those of us who get to come on Monday, we’re the luckiest ones,” a Needham volunteer said, alluding to the many behind-the-scenes helpers at home.

Leslie Gleason, a volunteer and Monday Lunch coordinator for 21 years, said, “Each and every one here represents another 10 or 20 or 60, a whole big community, and by serving a basic need in others, helping with others’ healing, we get much more out of being part of this community than we put into it.”

Ellen Parker, the executive director of Project Bread, which helps fund the Monday Lunch Program, came to congratulate the volunteers, and the Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, retired bishop suffragan, was there to bless them for their efforts and to pray for the eradication of hunger.

Streit, too, offered some gently-voiced outrage that people continue to go hungry in Massachusetts.

Project Bread, which organizes the annual Walk for Hunger pledge event that funds about 400 emergency food programs in the state, documents in its 2007 hunger status report a 22 percent increase for the year in hunger and food insecurity in Massachusetts.

Several of the Monday Lunch Program volunteers said they enjoy being able to meet and interact with the lunch guests they serve. “Writing a check to a good cause gives a certain amount of satisfaction, but it’s nice to go to a place where the clients are treated well and to be part of something that is more complete than just a food outlet,” Paul Lamoureux, a longtime volunteer from Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, said after the event.