The name comes from Ecclesiastes 11:1, which invites the reader to: "Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days." Maya Angelou writes further: When we cast our bread upon the waters, we can presume that someone downstream, whose face we may never see, will benefit from our action, even as we enjoy the fruits sent to us from a  donor upstream. All of us at the Bread of Healing Clinic are committed to achieving  health, not necessarily eliminating sickness.  For us, health is an issue of social justice, a right that belongs to all people...not a commodity to be "delivered" on the basis of finances.  We share all that we have  in the hope of healing, in the hope of moving all of us (patients and providers and volunteers) toward wholeness.  None of us can be in full health without sharing the burdens of other people's illness.  When we share those burdens, the pain and illness is no longer paralyzing. All of us are empowered.