Get Involved With Community Breakfast

Five days a week, we offer a hot, delicious meal to anyone who shows up.

Learn more about our Community Breakfasts and how you can get involved below:

Eat

We share breakfast every weekday (Monday-Friday) with anyone who wants to join. Coffee hour begins at 7:00 AM and the meal begins at 8:00 AM. We serve casseroles, grits, eggs, bacon and coffee in the Parish House. Our breakfast community includes workers on Ninth Street, students, unhoused people in West Durham and anyone else who wants to join us.

Each Wednesday morning, Fresh Start Durham brings a shower trailer to St. Joseph’s to provide free showers. Towels, soap, and shampoo are provided. St. Joe’s also keeps a community closet to provide fresh clothes and toiletries.

Volunteer

Breakfasts are staffed by volunteers from the community. One volunteer arrives around 6:30 to “open” and get the coffee going. Cooks come at 7 to heat casseroles, crack eggs, fry bacon, and stir grits. Other volunteers come around 8 to help serve food and clean up afterwards.

We always welcome new volunteers, and will be happy to show you the ropes. Email our Breakfast Minister, Fr. Lachlan, at breakfast@stjosephsdurham.org for more information, or come to breakfast and learn about volunteering in person.

Donate

It costs approximately $193 to host breakfast for one day. If you would like to support our breakfast ministry financially, donate here; mail a check to St. Joe’s 1902 West Main St. Durham, NC, 27705; or venmo @Stjosephsdurham.

Members of St. Joseph’s and other local congregations bake casseroles at home and bring them to the church. Other donations of breakfast foods (particularly bacon, eggs, cheese, and butter) are invited and appreciated. If you’d like to arrange for a donation delivery, learn more about casseroles or get some of our favorite recipes, email the Breakfast Minister at breakfast@stjosephsdurham.org.

In additional to financial contributions and food donations, we also welcome gifts of clothes to our community closet. Clothes donations can be dropped off between 7:00 am and 9:00 am Monday-Friday.

Community Partners

Breakfast is supported through generous donations from our Community and the following institutions:

St. Joe’s Community Breakfast by the Numbers

Prepared for Annual Meeting of St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, Durham, NC January 2025

Active Breakfast Volunteers: 76

Pounds of bacon cooked, per day: ~6

Casseroles baked, per day: ~7

Eggs cracked, per day: ~110

Coffee percolated, per day: 120 cups

Meals served at thrice-weekly Community Breakfasts in 2022: ~1,300

Meals served at thrice-weekly Community Breakfasts in 2023: ~4,800

Meals served at Community Breakfast in 2024: 10,041

New Congregation Partnerships in 2025: 1

Members of our newly formed Community Breakfast Advisory Board: 8

Breakfasters at our first-annual Breakfast Community Christmas Eve Service: 44

Largest number of attendees at a single Community Breakfast in 2023: 53

Largest number of attendees at a single Community Breakfast in 2024: 84

Faith Communities represented among Breakfast Volunteers: 10+

Socks given out, per month: 150+

Dishwashers operating in the kitchen: 2

Burners on our new stove, a Christmas gift from St. Stephen’s: 5

Gallons of water held by the shower truck at St. Joe’s on Wednesday Mornings: 180

Breakfast Ministers on Staff: 3