Pancake breakfast brings together community during cold months
While light snow and cold temperatures returned to Butler County, dozens gathered together to share a breakfast with friends, family and members of their parish.
All Saints Parish hosted a pancake breakfast from 8 a.m. to noon Sunday morning, Jan. 11, at the St. Michael the Archangel hall on Center Avenue. The breakfast was the first of 2026, with two more dates scheduled for Feb. 8 and March 8.
The parish hosts six breakfasts a year, from October to March, on the second Sunday of the month. Attendees get pancakes, a choice of sausage or ham, scrambled eggs and a choice of beverage.
Kathy Junker, who runs the breakfast, said the church started the meals in 2012 as a way for the congregation to chat and connect more than during Mass. The breakfast sees about 170 or so attendees each month.
“Our biggest month is December because we have a bake sale at the same time,” she said.
She said they chose the second Sunday specifically to avoid other churches’ breakfasts and give more opportunities for community members outside the congregation to join them.
“Somebody else is doing the first, so we took the second and someone else is doing the third just here in the Butler area,” Junker said.
As of late, she said it seems as though more people from outside the parish are starting to come to the meal.
“We’ve been seeming to get a little more variety of people from other places, and that’s been a good experience for us,” she said.
One thing Junker said she likes about the breakfast is that unlike a lot of the community meals offered, this one gives attendees a chance to sit and chat while having their breakfast.
Two attendees of the breakfast, John and Carol Thompson, said they’ve come almost every month since it began.
“(We come) every month unless we got a Steelers game going on,” John Thompson said.
For them, the reason they commit to coming to as many as possible is simple: it’s for the people they get to see.
“We love being around the people. They’re good people,” Carol Thompson said.
Junker said the event averages 15 to 20 volunteers who take on every role, from helping serve to preparing the food to selling tickets at the door. Some are students looking to gain some volunteer hours while some are retirees giving back to their church.
Either way, she said she believes it gives the volunteers a chance to mingle just as much as the attendees.
The church will host two more breakfasts in the spring and will pick back up in October. The price is currently $8 for adults and $5 for those 10 years old and younger.
