How a Group of Dedicated Volunteers are Making a Difference Every Saturday Morning

Community Volunteers Spotlight: Saturday Morning Breakfast & Showers

Since 2006, Saturday Morning Breakfast and Showers (SMBS) has been providing our homeless neighbors with a safe place to eat breakfast, take a shower, get a fresh pair of clothes, and build friendships with the local community. Every Saturday morning, volunteers would arrive bright and early to the gym at Calvary Baptist Church to set up and prepare breakfast. Some of our homeless neighbors would serve, too, by cleaning tables or assisting with folding clothing donations. The gym was full of all types of people from the community, sometimes making it hard to distinguish who was a volunteer and who was a homeless neighbor. It was a beautiful blend of people who had a good time serving one another and forming friendships with each other.

Unfortunately, that safe space for our homeless neighbors became disrupted for the first time since SMBS started when COVID-19 hit our community in March of 2020. For 10 months, SMBS remained closed in order to protect the health of those vulnerable. During this time, there became a growing need and desire for showers expressed by our homeless neighbors. So, behind the scenes the church leadership, KCB staff team, and volunteers were working hard to restart Saturday mornings again even if it didn’t look exactly like it used to. Through this process, new partnerships were formed and changes were made in order to make sure we operated safely during this uncertain time. With a reliable team of volunteers ready to go, SMBS was reopened in January of this year, and we were able to welcome back our homeless neighbors for to-go breakfast and mobile showers.

In 1 Peter chapter 4 it says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace.” For over 20 consecutive Saturdays since SMBS reopened, each volunteer at SMBS has displayed God’s grace and love through the use of their time, gifts, and service. Although we rejoice that through this ministry over 450 breakfasts have been served and over 220 showers have been provided, nothing compares to the relational need and support our volunteers have been able to provide to one another and our homeless neighbors. Dee Marie Spence, the Homeless Liaison Volunteer Lead at SMBS, shares this about her team:

“I love how everyone treats each other as equals. Our team is a mix of housed and unhoused - some who were homeless, some who weren’t. We have all come together, learning from one another. We embrace our likenesses, not our differences.”

For Dee Marie and the rest of the volunteers, Saturday mornings aren’t used as a time to catch up on sleep but as a time to serve and spend with our homeless neighbors. SMBS would not be possible without this team of dedicated volunteers. In honor of their service, we celebrated with a SMBS Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. It was a time full of good food, recognition, and reflection. It helped remind us all that anyone can make a difference in someone else’s life whether it be big or small, and in the word’s of Dee Marie, “Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something!”