Bodybuilding champion Darren M. Meade has huge biceps, gigantic calves, and a mammoth chest. He's got a big heart, too.

By TODD JACKSON THE ROANOKE TIMES

Bodybuilding champion Darren M. Meade has huge biceps, gigantic calves, and a mammoth chest. He's got a big heart, too.

The once homeless bodybuilder donated a tractor-trailer load of food - 25,000 pounds worth - to Roanoke's

Rescue Mission Sunday. He also rented a couple of stretch limousines and let children take rides in them as he mingled with a group of Rescue Mission volunteers.

Meade was in Roanoke over the weekend to support a women's
bodybuilding competition at the civic center. He's a friend of
Lynchburg's Jan Tana, the competition's sponsor.

Meade, a Mr. North America champion, paid for and donated the food to the Rescue Mission himself on behalf of the Jan Tana competition and the Feed the Children program. He said he wanted to give something back to needy people.

Meade can relate. At age 14, abandoned by his parents, Meade said he wandered the streets of the Oakland, Calif., area sleeping under

bridges, never thinking to look for a rescue mission. He said he was
later "adopted" by workers at an industrial complex, who fed him and ignited his love of body-building by letting him work out at a
company gym. "They called me 'pup,'" he said.

Darren Meade with the little girl who yelled, "Hey strongest man in the world come here a minute."

No one was calling Meade, now 36, by that name Sunday. "Hey, strongest man in the world, come here a minute!" one little girl yelled. Meade chuckled. 

He was also sentimental, choking up on several occasions as people asked for his autograph and offered their
stories. He hugged Jan Tana. He hugged his girlfriend. "This isn't my most masculine moment," he said.
Ray Linder, a participant in the Rescue Mission's drug and alcohol treatment program, shook Meade's hand and handed him a piece of paper.

Meade signed it: "To Ray: Stay strong." "He makes me want to be a productive member of society," Linder said. A group of about 100 volunteers showed up Sunday to unload the food truck in over 90-degree heat. It was emptied in less than an hour. The group was a diverse mix of people from a lawyer and an insurance agent to a
homeless man staying at the mission. They formed a human conveyor belt and the boxes - containing items from green beans and pasta to apple juice - moved quickly from person to person. 

Joy Sylvester-Johnson, the mission's director, said she believes Meade's gift is the largest one-time donation the mission has ever received. She said the food will last for months. The mission can use it. It served more than 150,000 meals last year, Sylvester-Johnson said.

Darren Meade, bodybuilder named Mr. North America, donated a truckload of food. Ron Smith (left) passes donated items to Courtney Hoge as about 100 volunteers move 25,000 pounds of food Sunday into the
Roanoke Rescue Mission. Darren Meade gave the food on behalf of the Feed the Children program.