Meet Michael, Food Outreach’s First Employee

Michael Lunter has been with Food Outreach since we were founded in 1988. After losing his partner of seven years to AIDS, Michael began working with St. Louis Effort for AIDS (now Vivent Health) to form a support group for people who had lost a loved one to the AIDS pandemic. At the time, no such group existed. It was there that he learned about a group of friends who had started cooking meals to support their friends with AIDS.

This group of friends became Food Outreach, and when they grew to the point of needing a part-time employee, Michael applied for the position. He was in college at the time, and the job offered him the flexibility to work around his classes. Michael worked in first Food Outreach office on the third floor of Second Presbyterian Church in the Central West End.

“The night before my first day on the job, the president of the board called me and asked if I had an extra phone I could bring to the office. I did. It was a rotary Mickey Mouse phone that I had in my spare bedroom. I unplugged it and brought it with me, and for the first month, that was the Food Outreach phone. In the office, there were five chairs, no desk, and a couple of garbage bags. My first task was to organize the papers in the garbage bags. I sat in one chair, put the other four in front of me, and just made piles until things slowly got organized. We didn’t even have scissors. Whenever I needed a pair of scissors or a stapler, I had to go downstairs to the church office, beg for it, and promise I would bring it back.”

For the first year, Michael was Food Outreach’s only employee and handled everything needed for the organization to function including managing finances, writing thank-you notes to donors, conducting new client assessments, and purchasing supplies for Saturday Cook and Packs. He worked at the agency for six years while completing his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He eventually left to pursue his career but remained a dedicated volunteer with Food Outreach for 37 years until he moved to Chicago with his husband in 2025.

Before earning his bachelor’s degree in psychology, Michael worked as a window dresser for Famous Barr Department Stores. He later earned a master’s degree in social work from Washington University in St. Louis. His first job after graduation was at Barnes-Jewish Hospital preparing patients and their families for the emotional and psychological challenges of open-heart surgery. Throughout his career, Food Outreach remained a significant part of his life.

“Working at Food Outreach was a major influence on me and my career. I needed to be on the front lines of the AIDS pandemic. I was also doing group support facilitation at St. Louis Effort for AIDS where I developed not only the first support group for significant others, but also a support group for the friends and family of individuals living with AIDS—all while I was working at Food Outreach and going to school.”

After he graduated, Michael continued to volunteer at Food Outreach on Saturday as a red apron. He also helped organize the auction for A Tasteful Affair for several years. When he retired, he began volunteering on weekdays in Food Outreach’s Nutrition Center as a red shirt volunteer, which gave him a chance to regularly interact with clients. Red shirt and red apron are Food Outreach’s most dedicated volunteers, committing to weekly volunteer shifts and managing volunteer trainees.

“My favorite part of working with Food Outreach was always interacting with the clients, and I knew that when I retired that I needed to be with the clients. The Nutrition Center was perfect for me. Many years ago, we had this one client, and she always wanted a bone-in-ham for the holidays. We got donations of hams and turkeys, and I would always set one aside and deliver it to her. She was fascinated that I was actually living on a farm at that time, and I gave her a picture of me with my pet chicken on my shoulder. And later, when she was in the hospital, I went to go see her and she had pictures of her family on the wall and there was me with my pet chicken, and her family said she insisted that that be on the wall.”

Food Outreach also impacted Michael’s personal life. He met his first husband at Food Outreach, and they were together for 25 years. He met his current husband 10 years ago and they had their first date volunteering together at Food Outreach.

“All the volunteers have been amazing. They have always been true to the mission. I’ve never met anyone there that I didn’t like during my time at Food Outreach. But the clients, their stories, and their lives never failed to make an impact on me. I learned countless lessons from the clients, especially about appreciating everything you have, no matter where someone comes from or what their background or circumstances are. They were all beautiful people, and that’s what I will always cherish and take with me.”