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Six-year-old Eric Johnson receives a bag of food items at DeSoto Bass Courts. Vandalia's Living Word Church has a mobile ministry that delivers food to 25 locations in Dayton.Click to enlarge

Alberta Boyd (left), a resident of DeSoto Bass Courts, embraces Rev. Karla Randall, whose ministry served 229,000 meals last year.Click to enlarge

To the residents waiting under a shade tree at Dayton's DeSoto Bass Courts, she is an angel of mercy.

To small children who swamped her the moment she arrived, she is a saint. And for needy families throughout the city who structure their daily routines around the arrival of her food trucks, Rev. Karla Randall of Living Word Church in Vandalia is a savior.

"The first year I operated this food ministry we served at four sites," Randall said. "The second year was 13. Now we serve 25 sites around the city during our summer feeding program. In a six-month period last year we served more than 229,000 meals to low-income families in greater Dayton."

Sixteen years ago, Randall was hired as an assistant at Living Word Church, 926 E. National Road, Vandalia. Other than clergy, she was the sole employee.

Today she runs a mobile food ministry that includes two 26-foot ministry trailers, five catering trucks, six full-time and 15 part-time employees who distribute more than 3,200 meals each day in the city's most impoverished neighborhoods.

In addition to the summer feeding program, Randall leads an outreach called Kids Club. For this she rolls out one of Living Word's metro ministry trailers outfitted with a pull-down pulpit on which she delivers her message.

At DeSoto Bass, residents gathered at the catering truck as volunteers began handing out food. Families carried home boxes of rolls and croissants while the kids munched on cheeseburgers, chili dogs and fries. No one pushed or complained and no one left empty-handed.

"I made a pact with God to feed these good people," Randall said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2167 or kmoss@DaytonDailyNews.com.