Glenwood UMC in Greensboro provides a free pancake breakfast every Saturday morning to the poor of our community. May 2009 will mark the 5th year we have provided this "all you can eat" hot meal to all those that show up at our church between 8 and 10 am each Saturday morning.
We never know how many people will show up on any given Saturday morning but we have become accustom to serving between 200 and 300 men women & children.Glenwood UMC is a small (70 people on Sunday morning) urban church which is located only a few blocks from government low cost housing.
A number of homeless people show up each Saturday morning with all they own in bags of some sort. Besides the food, some of our church members minister to our guest as opportunities present themselves. Some people have made confessions of faith at the breakfast. Much of the labor involved with the breakfast is provided by people in the community that have no other connection to the church.
Some people attending the breakfast have become active members of the church.Included in the breakfast are hot pancakes, sausage, ham, bacon, butter, milk, coffee and usually a choice of two kinds of fruit juice. Some people are so hungry the consume as many as 24 pancakes which is available to them by repeatedly going through the serving line.Several Methodist Churches in town take turns bringing over their youth groups to assist with the breakfast to give them a "hands-on" opportunity to serve the poor of our community.
The primary problem with the people we serve is under or unemployment. To respond to this need, we started classes to help them find sustaining employment. Last year we had a 32 class-hour Christian based program to assist them in finding employment. We are preparing to start another class this spring.
Peace,
Bob Sadler, Chair - Evangelism/Outreach,
Glenwood United Methodist Church,
Rev. Sarah L. Smith, Pastor,
Rev. Jean Nall, Assistant Pastor
1417 Glenwood Ave. Greensboro, NC 27403
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