• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Local mother and daughter dish it up at homeless center

Photo

Photo by Bill Olmsted

Angie Watkins slices muffins while her mother Janie Mullen oversees bacon production in the kitchen of the House of Mercy. Watkins has been making breakfasts once a week for residents at the transitional housing shelter since spring. Since being laid-off, Mullen has joined her daughter in the kitchen.

JANESVILLE — Maachah Smith normally doesn't eat breakfast.

But she never misses the meal when Angie Watkins and her mother, Janie Mullen, are preparing and dishing it up at the House of Mercy.

Even Smith's daughters were anxious to dig into the freshly prepared sandwiches of eggs and bacon on an English muffin along with fresh fruit, cinnamon rolls, juice and milk.

"Let me eat some," Micaiah, 4, said as she snatched a piece of sandwich from her 3-year-old sister Tyairah's plate.

"It gives us a nice time to sit and enjoy breakfast without me being worn out from cooking and cleaning," Maachah said.

She and the girls have been living at the homeless center for two weeks.

As Smith fixed a plate for herself, another 68-year-old resident filled her plate at the counter, where the food was set up buffet style between the kitchen and dining room.

"This is just marvelous. It's lovely and fresh," said Jean, who preferred not to give her last name.

"They're just terrific. It's wonderful they care to take the time to make you feel good when you're going through hard times. We need that personal touch," she said.

Watkins, who does data entry from her home five hours a day, started in May preparing the weekly breakfast at House of Mercy.

"I wanted to do something to give back. It was kind of a leap of faith," she said of her first volunteer effort.

When Mullen got laid off from her job, she joined Watkins in making breakfast. So did Watkins' sons Jacob and Nick, her teen-age brother Andy, and niece Haley Karlen, when their schools are not in session.

Watkins guessed she spends between $30 and $40 on groceries to make the meal.

Rob Terry, manager of the Sentry grocery store on East Milwaukee Street, donates three pounds of bacon or sausage and three-dozen eggs weekly for breakfast.

At least eight to as many as 23 people eat the breakfast that takes the family about 90 minutes to prepare. Leftovers are stored in the refrigerator for residents to eat later.

"It's nice to see the kids have fruit and protein they normally wouldn't get," Watkins said.

The women even prepared stuffed turkeys for Thanksgiving Day and would like to do more to provide healthy, nutritious meals for residents.

They plan to continue making breakfast.

"I don't see any reason not to," Watkins said, as she washed fruit and placed it in a bowl. Nearby, her mother fried strips of bacon.

Shelter director Ron DelCiello said the breakfast "makes families here feel special."

"When people come here, for a variety of reasons, they feel beaten down economically, physically and mentally," DelCiello said.

"So to have a person like Angie come in and do a nice breakfast that's not just Rice Krispies and milk, it's a meal that makes them feel valued."