Children’s Table Founder Honored at 94th Birthday Celebration

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

Bill Brown, founder of The Children’s Table, was honored Saturday by about 150 close friends for his 94^th birthday.

Brown gave all the credit for The Children’s Table’s success to his 30 volunteers. He said the volunteers work very hard.

“All I do is crow and they come and do all the work,” he said.

He said The Children’s Table, based in Bronson, has distributed 30 million pounds of food to rural Floridians in the 29 years of its existence.

One of the practices that has never changed is that there is only one phone for The Children’s Table, and it’s in the home of Brown and his wife Verna.

“Sitting there, I just got a call that we will service when this is over. Somebody needs food,” he said. “We don’t always have enough.”

The Children’s Table serves between 1,000 and 2,000 people a week.

It serves Bronson, Archer, Hernando, Dunnellon, Inglis, Otter Creek, Williston, and other parts of North Central Florida.

Brown, a World War II and Korean war veteran, said he was humbled one time when he had the honor of shaking the hands of 37 Medal of Honor winners at a civilian award presentation for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. He was one of 10 finalists for the award.

“I got there. I got to shake hands with 37 Medal of Honor winners. What I have done is nothing compared to them. I had a small role,” he said.

Brown doesn’t describe what he and his wife do as a passion.

“Let’s make it a calling,” he said.

With the phone for The Children’s Table phone located in the home of the Browns, they witness firsthand the needs of hungry families.

“We get calls at midnight, at 4 a.m., whenever, they need food,” he said. “We just keep going.”