While that has gotten the café through its first eight months, Heart of Butte is hoping to solicit some larger donations, buy the building it occupies, reduce the operation’s overhead and free up more money to focus on the mission of feeding the hungry.

So far the group has received $5,000 donations from Montana Resources and Town Pump and a $10,000 contribution from an anonymous donor in Texas, but Sister McDonald is helping lead the effort to raise more.

Noting that the Sisters of Charity order to which she belongs “built a hospital in this city in 1881 using a tin cup” to solicit donations, McDonald vows that she “will visit with anybody who would like to hear about the café and what we’re doing—organizations, individuals, whomever.”

As those fundraising efforts persist in the background, Paul continues to grind out his service to the less fortunate, six days a week, eliciting admiration from others who share in his faith and admire his unwavering commitment to embodying it.