St. Catharines church celebrates 30 years of community breakfast program

It started out two days a week. Now, 30 years later, St. George’s Anglican Church in St. Catharines serves 32,000 breakfasts each year. Today, the congregation marked the anniversary knowing there’s still work to be done.

For the last three decades, volunteers have served a hot meal every morning of the year, never missing a day, not even during the pandemic. Today was a chance to recognize how far they’ve come and how much further they have to go.

“There’s something unique here. And I want to take just a moment at the beginning here to ask again, can we give a round of applause to all the people that have kept this going,” said Mat Siscoe, St. Catharines mayor.

Siscoe was on hand to mark the 30th anniversary of the community breakfast program at St. George’s Anglican Church. It takes over 180 volunteers to run the program, which serves those facing housing insecurity or individuals on a limited budget.

“We’ve never missed a breakfast in 30 years,” said Kelly Bailey, chair of the community breakfast program.

Bailey is the chair of the community breakfast program. She’s spent time with guests who have come through the doors and knows first-hand how this work creates an impact.

“They come here because they need warmth, they need companionship, they need friendship, they need a hot meal. They need a place to sit, use the washroom. It’s like home for them,” said Bailey.

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“It started with two days a week 30 years ago and by the next year in 1997 they had the resources that they needed in order to be able to serve breakfast every day of the year,” said Reverend Martha Tatarnic, co-rector at St. George’s Anglican Church.

The fuel to their fire? Generous donations from members of the community and its businesses both in food and dollar amounts.

A fridge was purchased for the breakfast program through a generous donation of the Wise Guys Charity – one of the many groups that have supported the program over the years.

“We really don’t have enough of the tools, we don’t have enough of the ability to say we’re just going to direct a whole bunch of money here,” said Robin McPherson, St. Catharines ward 4 councillor.

McPherson, along with Mayor Mat Siscoe, began volunteering with the program to determine who, Coun. McPherson says, is falling through the cracks. She says city funding and current affordable housing projects on the horizon are not enough – calling on both the federal and provincial governments to step in.

“I was just with my colleagues at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and we are calling for a national homelessness, mental health and addiction strategy. That’s what we need. And if we don’t have that, we’re still going to be doing these piecemeal little things,” said McPherson.

If you or someone you know would benefit from the program or would like to help, you are asked to contact the church directly at communitybreakfaststc@gmail.com.

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