‘Absolute saint’ helps the city’s homeless.
After years of enduring her stepfather’s abuse, Dianne Talbert had had enough.
So in 1972, when he gave her an ultimatum — follow his rules or leave his household — she packed her bags and fled the four-bedroom house on the south side of Sacramento. She was 15.
Talbert stayed with friends, couch surfing and sometimes living on the streets between moving from place to place. During those uncertain days, she was determined to stay in school and maintain high grades.
At 18, she enlisted in the Air Force. Taking the oath to serve her country gave her purpose and a gateway from a painful past to a brighter future.
Today, Talbert, 64, is executive director of Communities Under the Bridge, a faith-based nonprofit on the East Side that offers worship services, basic necessities and health care to the homeless.
The agency, formerly known as Church Under the Bridge, has provided aid to the unsheltered for the past 24 years. The name change reflects expanded services that include dental, medical and family support.
Fifteen years ago, she retired as a chief master sergeant after a 30-year career. Seeking to volunteer and practice the tenets of her faith, a Google search led her to the 9,000 square-footbuilding on Chestnut Street near the Hays Street Bridge. Bible verses such as “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” line the walls of the large dining room where hundreds once ate hot meals at long tables and benches before the city’s coronavirus restrictions put a temporary halt on the large gatherings.
“When I walked in the door, my spirit knew this ministry loved on people who were discarded,” Talbert said. “Sometimes you have more love than you know what to do with and you need a place to give it away. This was the place.”
The first six months she worked the tray station, where diners dropped off trays and dishes. She learned humility, the ins and outs of the operation, and built relationships that still stand.
Talbert works 60 hours a week, tending to paperwork and operational matters, with a minimum of five hours each day at the facility. Every evening, Talbert and volunteers feed more than 200 meals to people lined up outside the building. Because of the pandemic restrictions, they eat their meals outdoors, sitting on the curb.
The nonprofit’s work force includes more than 60 partner organizations and 3,000 volunteers.
One partner has been the San Antonio Christian Medical and Dental Association, which offers medicinal outreach to the homeless population. Mitzi Roberts, co-director of the association said because of COVID-19 restrictions, the students can’t go out on their missions, so they volunteer at the East Side hub.
“Dianne Talbert is an amazing woman,” Roberts, 53, said. “She’s an absolute saint and the most humble servant. She keeps on going, doing the hard stuff, day in and day out. It is an honor to partner with her and Church Under the Bridge.”
Talbert’s granddaughter Amiyah Talbert, 20, has volunteered since she was 12. She started as a floater and now helps as a coach alongside her grandmother, whom most people call “Momma.” Amiyah is one of Talbert’s many grandchildren who have volunteered over the years. Enlightening friends about the nonprofit’s guests is Amiyah’s personal mission.
“You don’t know their stories,” Amiyah said. “They eat, they breathe, they just don’t have the income. I don’t call them homeless people, I call them people, by their names.”
Talbert enlisted in the Air Force in 1975 during a maledominated military era.
“My thrust in the Air Force was to know any job given and accomplish it with excellence,” she said.
Talbert rose through the ranks. She worked special duty assignments at six different bases that included teaching professional military education and serving as deputy director of family support. She was an operational manager on an inspector general team at Randolph Air Force Base for four years.
Talbert said she always worked to maintain a standard of excellence, a trait that helped her achieve the Air Force’s highest enlisted rank.
“You blaze a new path for those behind you,” she said.
Her mother, Joyce Jaspar, was proud of Talbert’s achievements. She would introduce her as “my daughter the sergeant.”
Talbert originally had planned to stay in the Air Force for four years. She proudly notes that her length of service from enlistment to retirement was 30 years, 17 days, and 6 hours.
Her military service also connected her with her husband-tobe, Hosea Talbert. They met while stationed at Ramstein Air Base Germany. The couple, married for 44 years, have four children, 25 grandchildren, and
four great-grandchildren.
Talbert uses her years of combat training and management experience to help normalize the lives of people the Communities Under the Bridge assists.
“If I haven’t seen you in six months, I’m still going to hug you, tell you I love you, missed you, and ask if you’re OK,” she said. “I’m going to feed you and tell you that Jesus loves you.”
As temperatures dip and chilly winds whip across the city, Talbert’s focus is on the welfare of their guests.
She’s part of the city’s caring corps of people. Like the woman who took tents to clients so they’d be warm as they slept on wood pallets, cardboard and blankets out in the streets. And there’s the anonymous person who lugged a six-foot-tall Christmas tree to the tent city spread beneath the Interstate 37 overpass.
At year’s end, Talbert offered a holiday menu to the nonprofit’s outdoor diners. It was the same fare many San Antonio residents enjoy — a Southernstyle dinner with black-eyed peas, rice and banana pudding. It is a long-held tradition that black-eyed peas will bring peace, comfort and good luck in the New Year.
“It seemed fitting for what we do,” Talbert said before the New Year’s Day dinner. “I probably will give them cards with encouragement, Scripture and tell them that this is the beginning of a new year, for us and them.”