Translation Dutch / Tilburg News

Gerrit Poels, also known as Father Poels, has died at the age of 93. Until an advanced age, he used to bring leftover bread at night to Tilburgers living in poverty.

Father Poels is a well-known name in Tilburg and the surrounding area. Since 1990, he got on his bike seven nights a week to bring bread to people who needed it. He often left that in a bag on the door handle, so that his help remained unseen. “People are often ashamed of their poverty,” he knew. That’s why he also went out at night.

For his foster daughter, he was first and foremost just a father. “He was a very sweet dad,” daughter Hülya told Omroep Brabant. “He always radiated patience and kindness. Everyone was safe with him. He was the first thing in my life and he will be until the last.”

With his panniers full of bread, he rode an average of 30 kilometres a night across town. He came home only in the early morning. “Sometimes during his night route, he felt it was more important to feed that one scared kitten,” says Hülya. “Those 200 other addresses then had to wait for a while. It’s about the heart with which you do something, not the numbers.”

‘I am not an aid worker, I help’
Poels was also called the ‘bread priest’, although he had not been a priest for a long time. In 1969, he had left the priesthood after 15 years, in his own words, because the church hardly paid attention to people’s necessary needs anymore.

That same year, he married the also outgoing Sister Angelique van den Heuvel. In the years that followed, together they raised six foster children and cared for people with mental health problems. With four others, he founded the Tilburg help centre. The resulting first shelter for the homeless in Tilburg was named Huize Poels.

In 1990, Poels bade farewell to Huize Poels. According to Omroep Brabant, he disliked the professionalisation and regulations in the assistance sector. Poels did what he had learned in practice and what he felt was necessary. “I am not an aid worker, I help,” was a famous statement by Poels. In part thanks to him, three more shelters, an employment project, a thrift shop and a social eatery were established in Tilburg.

Gerrit Poels remained committed to helping people in poverty until the very end:

In 1990, Poels founded the Bread Necessary Foundation and started his nightly bicycle tours of Tilburg, which he did for 27 years. In 2017, at the age of 88, he decided not to spend whole nights delivering bread anymore. He transferred his work to his foster daughter Hülya and a foundation was set up where people could go for meals and food pick-ups.

With his work, Poels said he had worn out 60 bicycles and helped thousands of people. He did not retire completely, by the way. “I am going to stop foot by foot. I am so used to getting up at night and doing that work, there is no escape anymore,” Poels told Omroep Brabant in 2017.

For his work, Poels has received several awards. In 2017, for instance, he received the Golden Lay medal, the highest municipal award. Earlier, he had received a Golden Pin from the municipality and a tile on Tilburg’s Walk of Fame. He was further Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau. In 2001, KRO proclaimed him a Dutch hero.

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Father Poels will be missed, wishing his loved ones lots of strength