Bread of Life Café supports the Galilean Home
The Bread of Life Café may look like an ordinary country restaurant, but don’t be fooled. The tidy white building and its cornucopia of homecooked food serve a greater mission: providing a loving home for children in need.
Served by Taylor County RECC, the restaurant is run by Galilean Home Ministries, a Liberty-based nonprofit that was founded in 1974 by Jerry and Sandy Tucker to provide a home for children, primarily those with physical and mental disabilities.
Known for homestyle favorites like chicken and dumplings, fried chicken, bread pudding and peach cobbler, Bread of Life Café is a full-service, sit-down restaurant offering diners a full menu as well as an abundant buffet, with specials that change daily. It also offers the knowledge that money spent in the restaurant goes to support a good cause.
Longtime head chef Zach Harpin, who became kitchen manager in 1999, came to live at The Galilean Home when he was about 4 1/2 years old, joining a family that included more than 100 kids by the mid-90s. Now 42, Harpin says he began cooking alongside late ministry co-founder Sandy Tucker after he realized cooking got him off the hook for after-dinner chores.
Apart from two brief stints in other jobs, Harpin has spent his career at Bread of Life Café. He and one of his kitchen supervisors oversee a changing daily buffet menu. One perennial favorite is the peach cobbler. “If you don’t have peach cobbler, they’re mad,” Harpin says, laughing.
Today, The Galilean Home is home to 32 full-time residents and provides respite care for families.
Sandy died in 2007, but Jerry, 84, is still involved in the day-to-day operations of Galilean Home Ministries. His two daughters are also involved in The Galilean Home and plan to be the next generation of leadership, says public relations manager Jennifer Coffey.
Since its founding, the home has been funded solely by private donations. Country music star Charlie Daniels became a supporter after hearing residents of the home perform as part of a children’s choir in Nashville during a music convention.
“He fell in love with the kids from the home and became a big supporter,” Coffey says. Over the years, Daniels continued to make donations and help with fundraising efforts. After Daniels’ death in 2020, a front row at his funeral was reserved for Jerry Tucker and Galilean Home residents.
Independent businesses founded by the Tuckers have also provided important support for the ministry. In 1992, Sandy Tucker opened a bookstore in downtown Liberty that she hoped would provide extra income for The Galilean Home. When books didn’t sell as hoped, she began offering soups and sandwiches, too. Before long, “Mom’s” cooking dramatically outpaced books in popularity. The Tuckers opened Bread of Life Café in 1995, and it moved to its current location in 2001.
Today, Bread of Life Café reincorporates Sandy Tucker’s original vision of a bookstore and gift shop. Customers can fill up on comfort food in the restaurant, then browse the shop for homemade fudge, locally sourced products, books by Sandy Tucker and information about The Galilean Home.
As head chef of Bread of Life Café, Harpin says he’s grateful for connections to the home where he grew up.
“It’s an honor to help fund The Galilean Home for future generations [so that] they would have the second chance at life that I had,” he says.
Located at 5369 S Highway 127, Liberty, Bread of Life Café is open Monday–Thursday 10:30 a.m.–8 p.m., Friday 10:30 a.m.–9 p.m., Saturday 7 a.m.–9 p.m. and closed Sunday.
