I think I've mentioned before that I help serve a breakfast ministry the first Saturday of every month. This month, the person who does the eggs wasn't there so I scrambled and cooked 36 dozen eggs. We had a full crowd this time, serving over 236 people before our counter lost count of the people there. We serve eggs, pancakes, sausages, donuts, cereal, coffee and orange juice. And, we try and gather the baked goods from local grocery stores that would otherwise be thrown away and put that out for them with them.
Not everyone is homeless. I think many of the people there are stretching their food stamps or their budgets. You can tell the ones that seem to be really homeless by the number of clothes they are wearing and if they are carrying stuff with them. You get to know some of them, the ones who are there every month. There is a man in his 40s who tells me every month, how many months he's been clean, and how he won't use anymore because he's been clean now for 13 months and he would have to start counting all over again. This month, he told me he really wanted to go to an NA meeting that day, but the location is in a bad neighborhood for him - one he used to go to to score drugs and he would run into too many former acquaintances who would try and lure him back into drugs. He was going to try and find someone to go with him who could help keep him strong.
There is a woman who is usually there every month. She wasn't there this time. It made me wonder where she was - was she ok? Did she just skip that day? Did she move or find another job? She had been employed by the city school district, but was let go because they didn't think she was efficient enough.
It was sad to see how many children that were there this month. Usually there are a couple, but this month, there were probably over 20 kids there, ranging in age from infants to pre-teenagers. I was wondering if maybe the parents spent money on Christmas presents that left them short in January for their grocery budgets. Or is this the start of a worsening trend in the local economy.
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Hi Cathy,
That was beautiful what you said about the sun's rays over at my blog.
What a fantastic thing to do with the breakfast. That's alot of eggs!! I hope that man stays clean, it sounds like he is doing a good job at it, maybe he can finding a meeting elsewhere?
In a way you must get attached to these people you see every month, like that woman who didn't show up, maybe she got a job? Hope it is something positive.
Unfortunately I think it a growing trend with the economy, everything is so expensive, it seems that the dollar just doesn't stretch as far anymore.
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