St. George’s Clayton breakfasts bring the community together and raise funds to help others

After the pandemic, when people were starting to gather again at St. George’s Anglican Church in the village of Clayton, a small group of parishioners discussed ways to do outreach and to continue to connect with residents in the area.

The parish used to host a Valentine’s Day dance every year that was very popular, but the numbers of people attending the church were down, with only 14 to 20 people, they couldn’t manage an event like that.

They decided to host a monthly community breakfast in the church hall, which has a full kitchen. They started off with pancakes, eggs and sausages and later added hash browns. In the beginning when they started the meals, they were pleased to welcome 15 to 20 people.

But word of a great hot breakfast spread, and now three years on, they usually expect to feed 50 to 60 people, says Alison Wark, one of the parishioners and organizers, who runs the program.

There are no restaurants in Clayton, so the monthly breakfasts are great time for people in the community to get together. Wark said that they always have a radio on while they are cooking and serving. Recently, she noticed that she couldn’t hear it anymore. Kathy Lowe, the other organizer, suggested turning the volume up, but Wark had just pointed it out as a good sign that the volume of visiting in the hall had completely drowned out the radio.

Aside from the social benefit to the community, the breakfasts have also benefitted community in other ways.

The program costs are quite low because much of the food, including the maple syrup, is donated by local farmers. (The farmer who supplies the eggs now helps cook them to order, so people can choose between scrambled and fried!)

There’s no charge for the breakfasts, but people can and do leave a free will offering. After the first six months, the fund had grown to $700, which they donated to school breakfast programs in the area. Last year, the fund was $4,000, which they used to donate to local food banks, school breakfast programs, and to help buy Christmas gifts for children in two families through local organizer Cyndi Porter’s Angel Tree fund.