We start serving at the Roselawn Outreach Center on Roselawn Ave just off Florida blvd. every Wednesday morning at about 7:00. We finish up there about 8:00 and then go roaming around for more homeless under the interstate, under the bridge and on the levee. Feel free to come early or late.
If you want to help cook, come by the Cooking for Christ Kitchen
at Healing Place Church between 5:00 and 5:30. Your help
is a blessing to the homeless. Contact us or call for
more information 225-445-3226.
To bring the CHURCH to the people. To let them know that God cares & that we care about them. To pray with them and for them and with God’s grace - change their lives
GUIDELINE & CHECKLIST FOR
HOMELESS BREAKFAST OUTREACH
Last Updated 3/7/2008
This information for a program begun around March 2007 to provide street ministry by serving a homeless breakfast in the downtown area of Baton Rouge, under the interstate, on the levee, or wherever we can find homeless people.
The vision and the dream of this homeless outreach is to make an intentional effort to reach out to someone with no place to lay their head, to let them know that God sent His one and only Son and He also sent us to serve breakfast.
The food provides an important means of letting them know that other people care and they are not forgotten. In walking the Gospel, it is hoped that they will encounter the love of Christ without preaching and experience Church without walls. But for the Grace of God this could be anyone of us.
The care and effort we put into cooking and serving the homeless is a reflection of ourselves and Christ in us. If we see someone doing something and they look really busy, let’s jump in and give them a hand without having to be asked. Give it our best. Shoot for excellence. Go the extra mile. You never know…. God may be watching.
It is the volunteers that give of their time that make this outreach possible. To those who cook, serve and pray – we thank you.
Food required for the breakfast:
Food is usually purchased in 2 week batches and stored in the Cooking for Christ kitchen.
Food is purchased at Sam’s Club. The amount of food required for one breakfast serves about 100 to 125 plates and needs the following:
1.4 boxes of Members Mark carton eggs which equals approx 16 dozen total eggs
2.4 bags of Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits (36 count per bag)
3.5 boxes of Jimmy Dean precooked sausage (24 pieces of sausage per box)
4.1 - 5 lb bag of grits
5.4 gallons of Borden orange juice
6.4 bottles of squeezable jelly purchased at a local grocery store, since Sam’s does not carry this.
Food is prepared in the back of Healing Place Church at the Cooking for Christ kitchen.
COOKING TEAM
Cooking instructions:
Upon first arriving, turn the convection oven to 400 degrees when you first get there to allow it to heat up while filling the pans. Layout sausage and biscuits on large pans, note biscuits need to be separated to cook but the sausage is precooked and can be stacked tighter. The biscuits must be well browned before taking out of the oven. If they are not brown the insides are still raw. As the biscuits and sausage are finished cooking, put them into large aluminum serving pans and keep covered to keep them hot. Put them in to the portable hambro ovens.
EGGS: To cook the eggs, use the triple burner propane stove. To light the burners, use the long burner lighters on the table by the pull up garage door or in the drawer by the file cabinet. Use the stainless steel serving dolly to carry the boxes of eggs to the cooker and set up 2 large aluminum pans ready to hold the cooked eggs.
Cook eggs in two large non-stick skillets. Cook 1 box of eggs at one time in one skillet. You must constantly stir the eggs after the skillet gets hot or they will stick and burn on the bottom. After the eggs are cooked empty the skillet into one of the large aluminum pans. Please note to only put 2 skillets of eggs into one aluminum pan. If the pans are overloaded they will collapse. Cover the eggs to keep them hot and put the pans into the portable Hambros ovens.
GRITS: To cook the grits, use the triple burner propane stove. To light the burner, use the long burner lighters on the table by the pull up garage door or in the drawer by the file cabinet
To boil the grits, begin this early and choose one of the large cooking pots. Fill with 4 and1/2 gallons of hot tap water from the sink faucet (you can find gallon measuring pitchers on the center shelving across from the sink). Place pot on the propane burner and put flame on high. After water is boiling, add salt and then put grits in while stirring the water so the grits do not settle to the bottom. Turn heat down to medium and stir continuously. Turn off heat after 15 minutes and add a pound of butter if you can find it in the refrigerator. Cover with the top and wrap a ring of aluminum foil around the top of the pot.
Note: when finished cooking on the propane burners, be sure to turn off the main valve of the propane tank.
Before loading the portable hambro ovens onto the truck, prepare 4 breakfasts in styrofoam plates, leave one breakfast for Mr. Ed Firor at the kitchen (write his name on top) and bring the other 3 plates to Starbucks to leave for the employees who make the coffee.
LOADING AND DRIVING TEAM
You should start loading the truck about 6:15 am and should be finished and ready to pull out from HPC at about 6:25 or 6:30 at the latest to avoid traffic. Don’t forget to pickup the Starbucks coffee at the Starbucks by the Highland Road Albertson’s and drop off the 3 plates of breakfast.
Pack a large box with:
1.Styrofoam serving plates, (which is 1 plastic sleeve of 100 plus about 25 more) Styrofoam serving containers
2.Approx 150 Styrofoam cups, (about 4 sleeves of 6 oz. cups)
3.4 bottles of squeezable Jelly
4.1 box of latex serving gloves
5.1 roll of paper towels
6.2 Large serving spoons, for eggs and grits
7.2 pairs tongs to serve sausage and biscuits
8.3 large garbage bags for trash cleanup
9.2 round cartons of sugar for coffee
10. 1 round carton of creamer
Also put aside
1.1 box of pre-packed plastic utensils (forks, knives, & napkin packs)
2.4 gallons of orange juice
3.1 case of bottled water
Load truck with:
1.2 serving tables
2.2 Hambros filled with the serving pans of eggs, grits, biscuits and sausage.
3.Pot of grits.
4.4 gallons of orange juice.
5.1 case of water
6.The large box with the serving containers, cups, Jelly etc.
7.The box of serving utensils.
Before leaving:
1.Pray with everyone before leaving the church.
2.Be sure to turn off the main knob at the propane tank.
3.Pull down the garage door and lock up the kitchen.
When leaving the Church:
Stop by Starbuck’s on the way out to get the coffee and bring them 3 of the breakfast plates already prepared.
SERVE TEAM
Serving Location:
We are currently serving on Florida Blvd at the abandoned UPT Restaurant across the street from the Pelican Pawn Shop and the Volunteers of America Drop in Center. We also roam around if time and manpower allows to the interstate underpass, the bridge and levee.
To Serve the breakfast:
1.Unload and setup the two tables.
2.Put coffee and juice on one end and the food on the other.
3.Setup the plates at one end and then line up pans
4.Pray before serving any of the food or coffee.
5.On each plate, serve a scoop of eggs, 1 sausage patty, 1 biscuit, 1-2 scoops of grits.
6.Be sure to add some jelly to each plate and give them a pack of plastic utensils.
7.Greet the people that you are serving and be encouraging to them. Remember that we may give the only encouraging words that person may hear all week.
8.Place out 2 garbage bags for trash.
9.Clean up tables and load truck. Check for trash lying around. Note: trash bags can be tied up and placed in the dumpster on the left side of the UPT restaurant.
10.Be humbled and thankful for God allowing us to serve and sow into the lives of these people and that they be blessed and encourage by it.
Note: If you plan on Roaming for more homeless then, after most have been through the line one time each, set aside about 25 to 30 plates in one of the cars for driving around to look for homeless in remote places. If someone walks up to the breakfast late and you are sure they have not already been through the line, you can give them one of the 25 plates. This usually continues till you are left with about 15 plates for roaming.
CLEANUP TEAM
After returning to the Church kitchen:
1.Cleanup all pans and skillets and put everything away.
2.Wipe out the Hambros and put away.
3.Put up the left over Styrofoam containers and cups and serving utensils.
4.Wipe off the serving tables and put them away.
5.Windex all stainless steel prep tables.
6.Scrub and Windex sinks.
7.Take trash out of garbage cans and replace trash can liners. Tie up the trash bags and place in dumpsters behind office trailers in very back of the church property.
