{"id":14767,"date":"2017-02-01T17:02:11","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T01:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=14767"},"modified":"2017-02-01T17:02:11","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T01:02:11","slug":"shared-breakfast-celebrates-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/shared-breakfast-celebrates-20-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Shared Breakfast celebrates 20 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jean Ferguson helps serve fruit at First United Methodist Church of Seattle during Shared Breakfast. In 2016, almost 15,000 hot breakfasts were served, fulfilling its tag line, \u201c…tending the soul of the city\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

By Elizabeth Blanton<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Every Sunday morning in the Fellowship Hall of First United Methodist Church of Seattle, volunteers arrive before the sun comes up to prepare 60 dozen eggs, 400 biscuits, six gallons of gravy, 40 lbs. of sausage, 10 pounds of coffee and 30 boxes of cereal. Sometimes a Shared Breakfast guest will leave a note behind on their paper placemat, like this one: \u201cThanks for the great breakfast. You made me smile when I thought there was not anything to smile about.\u201d This month, First Church is celebrating the 20th year of its Shared Breakfast program.<\/p>\n

On Sunday morning, January 5, 1997, on a wing and many prayers, members of First Church began serving breakfast one Sunday every month to homeless and hungry people in downtown Seattle as part of a new strategic direction \u201cto increase the diversity, quality, and quantity of our ministry in the heart of Seattle.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At the first breakfast, 13 volunteers served 44 homeless men. Dedicated volunteers and a \u201ccan do\u201d spirit for urban ministry kept Shared Breakfast going for the next few years despite many challenges. By the close of 2001 Shared Breakfast attendance had more than doubled, feeding over 200 people every month.<\/p>\n

In 2004, seven other United Methodist Churches in the Seattle region signed on to send volunteers to Shared Breakfast, making it possible for Shared Breakfast to be served on two Sundays every month. Volunteers from Kent United Methodist Church and Cornerstone United Methodist Church still regularly come to help.<\/p>\n

\"\"In the spring of 2008, the First Church congregation became \u201chomeless\u201d itself when their building was sold. During the following two years, the church worshipped at Seattle Children\u2019s Theatre while the new church building on the corner of 2nd and Denny in Seattle\u2019s Belltown neighborhood was under construction. First Church coordinated with its new neighbors in Belltown, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, to serve Shared Breakfast on the Sacred Heart property until the new First Church building was completed. In January of 2010, the congregation moved into its new church building and Shared Breakfast moved into its new home in the church\u2019s Fellowship Hall.<\/p>\n

Again on a wing and many prayers, First Church began serving Shared Breakfast every Sunday in October 2013. The food for Shared Breakfast, which now costs $35,000 per year, is funded entirely by donations, and 25 volunteers who are needed every week. Jean Ferguson, who has been coordinating Shared Breakfast for 17 years, says, \u201cEven though I worry now and then about funding and volunteers, I\u2019ve discovered that prayer is the best solution. New facets for income occur on a surprisingly regular basis, which have enabled us to continue with breakfast each week. This is also true of our wonderful volunteer help.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016, 14,878<\/strong> hot breakfasts were served. \u201cThe congregation has been able to sustain this ministry through their own commitment, passion, and sacrifice,\u201d says Rev. Sharon Moe, Senior Pastor of First Church.<\/p>\n

\n

Learn more about Shared Breakfast and how you can get involved, or <\/i>bit.ly\/firstchurch-shared-breakfast.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jean Ferguson helps serve fruit at First United Methodist Church of Seattle during Shared Breakfast. In 2016, almost 15,000 hot breakfasts were served, fulfilling its tag line, \u201c…tending the soul of the city\u201d. By Elizabeth Blanton Every Sunday morning in the Fellowship Hall of First United Methodist Church of Seattle, volunteers arrive before the sun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":14769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,394],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-local-church-2"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/NEWS_SharedBreakfast.png?fit=741%2C486&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-3Qb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14767"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14776,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14767\/revisions\/14776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}