St. Catherine families enjoy ‘breaking bread’ together

Redwood Falls - Char Ellig and Joey VanHee understand how stressful it can be to get an entire family home from school and work, and back out the door again in time for Wednesday night church activities - not to mention taking time to eat supper first.

As they were visiting about such things last summer, the women, both members of St. Catherine’s Church in Redwood Falls, realized there was something they could do to ease the Wednesday night stress factor - they could provide a Wednesday night meal at church.

“I didn’t know how we were going to perfect it, but I knew we were going to do it,” Char said. “I walked into the church office and Lorna Bliss said ‘we have this little bit of money...’”

And so Breaking Bread Together began. Char met with several groups within the parish and asked for their financial input - and she got it. Volunteers have also been excited to be able to help with the cooking, serving, set-up and cleanup.

“We offer this hot, home-cooked meal as a gift to the families,” Liz Mahal explained, adding that there is no charge for the meal.

Families sign up for the monthly meal ahead of time so that the cooks have an idea how much to prepare. Then they sit back and enjoy the food.

“The families visit about their day instead of worrying about getting the meal on the table,” Liz said.

Religion teachers have noticed a difference as well. By the time the students get to their classrooms, they’re relaxed and ready to learn.

Religious education at St. Catherine’s involves the entire family - and now nobody needs to worry about going home to clean up the dishes afterwards. Since the first meal was served in the fall of 2004, Breaking Bread Together has served a variety of home-cooked meals. Bread, baked fresh in the church ovens is always included.