CHELSEA — Gusts of wind blasted fresh snow onto the two dozen or so booted and bundled regulars who flock every Saturday to this southeast neighborhood, empty tote bags hanging from their arms, wheeled metal carts trailing behind.
They come because for the better part of a decade, Daniel Hamilton has run a weekly food giveaway, by way of a local retailer, to fill his neighbors’ cupboards.
Diminutive and chatty, with a black-knit ski cap, hand-crafted with the lettering “Jesus saves sinners,’’ pulled to the top of his oversized eyeglasses, the 72-year-old is humble.
“I’m just a receiver, and an organizer, and a distributor,’’ he said.
Hamilton implements rations to ensure no one leaves empty-handed and a lottery system to devise who fills their bags first.
At 1 p.m., Hamilton shakes the plastic bin containing numbered tickets. “If you don’t like your number, don’t blame me,’’ he says.
Most speak Spanish, but some also speak Arabic, Korean, and French. Those lined up include grandmothers and middle-aged fathers to new mothers and young couples.
Saturday’s offerings were boneless filets of Atlantic salmon and organic free-range chicken. Boxed shortbread cookies and cinnamon coffee cake. Canned black olives and focaccia bread. Cardboard crates of tangerines, apples, bananas, and three kinds of berries, along with a smattering of Brussels sprouts, artichokes, avocadoes, and romaine lettuce.
“This is not like a regular food bank,’’ Hamilton said. “People take what they want. That way, there is hardly any waste.’’
Hamilton, who has lived in Chelsea for 30 years, is also known as “the Bicycle Guy.’’
When the weather is nice, he splits his ministries between food and bikes.
“From the first time a kid asked me to fix his bicycle, he must have told someone.’’ That was about 14 years ago.
For free, Hamilton fixes flats, repairs chains, replaces seats and handlebars for kids in the neighborhood, and gathers parts to rehab old bikes to give away.
Hamilton opted for a “major shift’’ in 1986 when he devoted his life to full-time ministry work and left behind an 18-year career as a truck driver for Richardson’s Dairy in Middleton.
“Ice cream melts, but souls last forever,’’ Hamilton likes to say.
“God got a hold of my hat,’’ Hamilton said. Sensing a higher calling, he chose “to follow Jesus.’’
“I was working hard,’’ Hamilton said. “I just knew something was lacking in my heart, there was emptiness there.’’
Hamilton was born in Everett and raised in Middleton, the middle child of five in a strict Irish-Scottish Catholic family.
Hamilton said he worked hard and took his job seriously at the dairy. But after 18 years, he hadn’t found satisfaction and started to feel depressed.
Hamilton said he gave his heart to Jesus, quit his job, and made an eternal promise to serve God “without asking for any money, or any pay, or any salary.’’
Hamilton’s bedrock philosophy, he said, is to help others and bring positivity into their lives.
“We’re not preaching any particular church,’’ Hamilton said. “I just have to go where God leads.’’
Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.
