During the nation’s unprecedented response to Covid-19 in 2020, when many businesses and restaurants were closed one of the men at the Friday morning Men’s Bible study group asked the question; “What can we do to serve our community?” After a brief pause, one of the men said; “It’s hard to find a breakfast in Valentine right now, why don’t we serve a free breakfast.” Pastor Scott McClellen says that they discussed it for a few minutes, and decided to move forward. They looked for a kitchen area where they could cook and serve breakfast, and the local Vet’s Club offered their facility for use. Their target at first was children home from school over the weekend. The kids get breakfast and lunch at school Monday through Friday, but sometimes, food is hard to find over the weekend. They began preparing breakfasts for kids and their families, and delivered a few meals around town that first few months (Maybe 7 or 8 breakfasts) but over time, McClellen says the Lord has shifted the focus to senior citizens who may be on a fixed income and are struggling to pay bills and buy groceries, or who may be home-bound and unable to get out to shop, or who are alone and in need of some company. They still deliver to some families with kids, but the majority of the deliveries are to senior citizens. And the list for deliveries has grown over the years, up to over 100 meals delivered every Saturday morning. The way that list grows is also interesting: Pastor Scott says “We’ll find out about a person who could use the food and the visit, and we drop off some food for them, then they’ll say, “My neighbor across the street could really use this” and they get added to the list. We are always willing to add new people to our list. We also have several ranch families in the area who donate frozen hamburger for us to give away, so every person who gets a Saturday morning meal also gets a pound of hamburger every Saturday.”
The team of men and women who help with the breakfast includes people from several area churches, and we can always use more help. If you’d like to help out on a Saturday, come downstairs at the Vet’s Club at 6:30 am and we’ll put you to work. Also, we do serve walk-ins, so if you want a free breakfast on a Saturday morning, come downstairs at the Vet’s Club and we’ll feed you.