Rockingham County churches start off your day right: A meal with a purpose

Nutritionists proclaim the health benefits of starting the day with a hearty breakfast, but several local churches realized long ago that breakfast could provide many other benefits.

“We’ve been doing this off and on for nine or 10 years,“ said Gorrell Parrish, a volunteer cook at Mount Zion United Methodist Church in Stokesdale. “We decided on breakfast because we didn’t think it would be as much work.“

Gorrell - better known as “Noonie” to his friends - didn’t realize 10 years ago that the easier path would involve him arriving at the church’s kitchen about 4:30 a.m. to cook the first batches of country ham and bacon.

Gorrell and his wife, Hilda, are part of a team of Mount Zion church members who prepare breakfast for about 100 people several times a year.

“We do it at least twice a year to benefit some of our church programs,“ said Kathleen Southern, another volunteer. “Sometimes we may hold others to benefit someone in the church if there’s a financial need.“

Mount Zion held its first breakfast this year on March 7, and people started lining up outside the fellowship hall well before the doors opened at 7 a.m.

While Gorrell and other volunteers cooked ham, bacon and sausage to go with the eggs, grits, hash browns and gravy, Hilda and her sister, Mary Lou Bradshaw, were at home baking dozens of biscuits.

“It doesn’t seem to matter how many we bake, we always run out of biscuits and have to bake some frozen biscuits by the end of the morning,“ Hilda said. “After all, we are Southerners and we really love our biscuits.“

Fewer than five miles from Mount Zion on Ellisboro Road, another group of Methodist cooks were heating up their church’s kitchen before sunrise on March 7. Eden United Methodist Church, on Eden Church Road outside Madison, holds a benefit breakfast the first Saturday of every month.

“We built this new fellowship hall about three years ago and figured this would be a good way to help pay for it,“ said Sylvia McClintick, wife of the church’s pastor, the Rev. Herb McClintick.

Like Mount Zion, Eden UMC does not charge for the breakfast. It simply sets out a box for donations.

“This is open to anyone in the community to come if for breakfast,“ said Mary Simmons, one of several regular breakfast volunteers. “Even if they can’t afford to donate anything, they’re still welcome to come enjoy breakfast and some fellowship.“

Simmons said the monthly breakfast buffet is a true team effort - one that starts days ahead with Sylvia McClintick buying the food.

“It takes a lot of food, and lot of help, to feed more than 100 people, even for breakfast,“ Craig Webster said.

Craig and his wife, Sarah, start their day about 4:15 a.m. by cooking about 24 pounds of bacon. That’s followed by 90 sausage patties and links, 18 dozen eggs and about 140 biscuits.

“Then there’s the grits, hash browns and fried apples,“ Craig said. “Like I said, it takes a lot of food and people to do this every month.“

Linda Hermance starts her job even earlier. She’s in charge of setting up the fellowship hall for the breakfast and comes in on Friday evenings to get things organized.

“I’m also responsible for bringing the fruit, and believe me I hear about it if it’s not here,“ Hermance said.

The buffet line at Eden UMC also includes two types of gravy.

“We started with two women preparing gravy and each had their own style,“ Craig Webster said. “Now, if we don’t have both of them on the line, we always hear from the folks that prefer the one that’s missing.“

Frances Young and Bynum Fulcher drive up from Winston-Salem once a month to eat breakfast with the folks at Eden UMC. Young, 81, said she and Fulcher, 88, have missed only one since they started coming three years ago.

“We heard about it from another couple in Winston-Salem and decided to try it,“ Young said. “We’ve been here every month since, except once when Bynum wasn’t able to come.“

She said they plan to keep coming as long as they are able.

“We just enjoy the fellowship,“ she said. “We’ve made a lot of friends here and I would miss them. Besides, it’s a nice drive up and good time away from home each month.“

Young and Fulcher are only two of many regular visitors to Eden UMC’s monthly breakfasts, according to Sylvia McClintick.

“We’ve heard a lot of stories through the last three years about how much these mornings mean to some folks,“ she said. “It’s really gratifying to see the way these breakfasts supply a blessing to a lot of people in the community, as well as helping us pay for this building. Knowing that really makes it a true ‘fellowship’ hall.“

The next breakfast at Eden UMC is April 4 from 7 to 9 a.m.

The Mayodan Lions Club will hold a benefit breakfast at the Lions Den on Main Street on April 25 from 7 to 10 a.m.

• News editor Steve Lawson can be reached at .