Walking briskly across the kitchen in a full-length white apron decorated with pictures of the "Flowers of Scotland" calmly answering questions and giving orders, Hwei-Ling Greeney appears at home. In the little kitchen in the First Congressional Church of Amherst, a cozy grey stone church on Main Street, Greeney directs volunteers in creating healthy and well-liked meals for Amherst residents in want of food or companionship.

For the last 10 years, Greeney has coordinated the Not Bread Alone Soup Kitchen, but regular diners and volunteers prefer calling it a community meal program. Every Saturday and Sunday, the program provides breakfast, lunch and take-home baked goods for locals to enjoy. People come not only to eat, but to socialize. Everyone is welcome and a diverse selection of locals of all ages and economic levels drop in each week. As regulars greet Greeney and each other, there is a sense of fellowship.

Although it's hard for guests to imagine Not Bread Alone without Greeney, the program actually originated in 1980. The First Congressional Church of Amherst started The Soup Company, to which volunteers brought bread and soup on Sundays. After a few years, the Center for Human Development, an umbrella organization that manages 45 non-profits in Massachusetts and Connecticut, took control of the small volunteer service, allowing the program to expand and become more organized.

Each week, Greeney improvises a menu. There is typically a noodle dish, a vegetable stir-fry, salad, vegetarian soup, rice and baked desserts, along with water, tea, coffee and juice. Whole Foods in Hadley, Atkins Farm, Henion Bakery and Hampshire College all donate produce and baked goods for the meals.

Over the years, Greeney has developed a keen ability to observe ingredients and volunteers quickly and assess their potential. One weekend she may have an abundance of young kids and eggplant, the next, college students and okra. "Hwei-Ling is the orchestra leader who conducts a symphony of volunteers to make a gourmet meal," gushes one regular.

Full of energy and a sense of purpose, Greeney skillfully manages a group of eight to 10 different volunteers each day. Aside from Greeney, the program is completely staffed by volunteers who cook, clean, pick up food, help with fundraising and do laundry. Greeney estimates that each year over 3,000 volunteer hours help maintain Not Bread Alone.

Greeney has built relationships with faith-based groups, schools, youth organizations and sports teams that come in on a monthly basis. Amherst College, UMass and Hampshire College send volunteers one Sunday a month. Next Sunday, volunteers will be decorating Easter eggs. Last week's volunteers peeled potatoes in preparation for Easter mashed potatoes.

Amherst students particularly enjoy eating and talking with guests after preparing the meals. Conversations range from life stories to politics.

Volunteers praise Greeney's ability to direct and instruct beginners and to stay calm and flexible through setbacks. One morning she came in to find that someone had left the refrigerator open and all of the contents had spoiled. She simply mopped up the water that had leaked and threw together a meal from canned goods.

She is conscious of the need to keep volunteers busy and happy, always sending them off with a sweet treat-usually chocolate-and a smile. But she is most concerned with the quality of the food. "What counts is that the food is delicious, nutritious and pretty, too," she said.

Although today Greeney cooks intuitively without recipes or hesitation, when she first got married 27 years ago, she hardly knew how to boil water. With a belief in "good food and good health," she taught herself how to cook out of necessity to feed her growing family. From 1981 to 1987, she and her husband, Bill Greeney, had four kids. She has fed them fresh food rather than canned food since they were babies.

She used to tell people that her athletic kids ran so well in high school because she "gave them good food to eat every night." Six o'clock family dinners were a nightly occurrence. Creating a structured home environment prepared Greeney to manage and entertain diners and volunteers at Not Bread Alone. In managing a home and a kitchen, Greeney values simplicity, frugality and order.

Today, her two oldest kids have graduated from Columbia University and Oberlin College and her two younger kids attend Wesleyan College and Harvard University. Now that they are out of the house, Greeney appreciates Not Bread Alone as a venue to show off her cooking skills.

Raised in Taiwan, Greeney was studying philosophy at the University of Taiwan when she met her husband, a Massachusetts native who was her English instructor. The couple decided to move to Worchester, Mass. While he attended graduate school at Clark University, she finished her bachelor's degree in philosophy and her master's degree in environmental studies.

For Greeney, studying was a way of combating the loneliness she felt after moving to a foreign country and to fulfill her love for learning. She studied the environment to find a way to channel her disgust at wasteful American tendencies in a positive way.

After eight years, the Greeneys moved to Tennessee, where her husband taught college physics, but they returned to the Northeast because they found the environment here more intellectually curious. After reading the Amherst bulletin and seeing the comments and curiosities of Amherst residents, they decided that this was a community they wanted to be a part of.

Greeney took the position at Not Bread Alone originally out of convenience. She was studying to get a Ph.D. in economics at UMass and wanted a part-time job. Her work requires cooking, recruiting volunteers and fundraising, but she mostly works weekends. She eventually abandoned her Ph.D. studies but not Not Bread Alone.

Not Bread Alone is not Greeney's only contribution to Amherst. As one of the five elected town selectmen, she helps determine public policy in Amherst. Her community involvement barely leaves her time to read or play gin rummy with her mother-in-law.

With a strong sense of civic responsibility, Greeney is interested in local and national politics. Her favorite travel destination is Washington D.C., where she can watch national policy in action. While visiting, she attends lectures by political groups of all beliefs. On different trips, she has introduced herself to both Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

She is starting her third and final year as selectman and she is considering someday moving her focus from local to national politics. She likes the idea of being a lobbyist. "I'm 49," she said. "It's never too late to start something new."

But if she ever leaves, she will be greatly missed. "She's the heart and soul of this place," said Tom, a latecomer who finishes his lunch as volunteers and guests begin clearing tables and stacking chairs. "People come here because they love her."

To get involved with Not Bread Alone, students can contact Amy Armstrong '07 who has been involved with the soup kitchen since her first year at the College.