I cook breakfast with Steve Malinsky and Nelson Nussbaum at the Ottawa PADS shelter once a month.
It’s not your normal operation. At restaurants like the Hi-Way and the New Chalet, short order cooks come and go, but the patrons return to their favorite table for years. Decades if they’re old timers in town. But at PADS the cooks stay same, at least for our breakfast, while the clientele constantly changes.
The three of us volunteered at PADS before it had a kitchen. When it started in the 90s there were actual pads-portable mattresses that moved from location to location each night of the week. You had to be an organized homeless person to keep track of where to sleep each night. PADS has come a long way.
Our church, Open Table, provides a monthly dinner Sunday evening and breakfast Monday morning. The dinner volunteers tell us how many are at the shelter and what food is available. They look for eggs and orange juice, cheese, sliced bread, potatoes and onions, and breakfast meat. The breakfast crew arrives about 6 a.m. with whatever is missing.
Sometimes we get help. Gary Reardon asked last month if he could supply us eggs.
“How does 48 sound?”
“60 would be better,” I said.
Monday morning there were two flats of 30 eggs in the fridge with my name on them.
I brought a gallon of orange juice and a loaf of bread. Steve brought onions and Nelson brought sausage. He’s partial to breakfast links, maple flavored. They’re a hit, and easy to cook. The shelter had potatoes.
We serve two eggs to order with toast, fried potatoes and onions, and sausage. Not everyone eats eggs, or breakfast for that matter. We always put out cold cereal and milk, donuts if they’re around, but eggs to order are not usually on the menu.
It surprises the residents when Steve asks, “How do you like your eggs?”
“What? However you got them” is a common response.
“No. We make them the way you want.”
Sometimes they’re puzzled.
“Scrambled I guess.”
“You sure? We can make eggs sunny side up, over easy, over hard, poached, cheese omelet.”
If you’re going to scramble eggs you can just as easily let them set up and fold them over some cheese.
Some don’t understand the terms for egg choices. Scrambled has become the default egg order of America. “Not runny” is trending.
We serve them quickly. Eggs from the stove, sausage from one crock pot, potatoes from another, and toast served hot and buttered.
Last time I found some strawberries in the fridge, stemmed and halved them, and put them in a bowl.
“Let’s give them some fruit,” I said. “It’ll look good on the plate.”
A woman who ordered sunny side up and one scrambled for her baby came back with the toddler in her arms. The baby’s face, next to hers, was smeared with red and smiling.
“Thanks so much for the hot breakfast. Can I have more strawberries? They were a first for my daughter. She loved them.”
After the rush, as we cleaned up, I messaged Gary.
“28 breakfasts, 55 eggs. Thanks.”
PADS residents really appreciate a hot breakfast while temporarily sheltered. But what they need, desperately, are homes.
- Dave McClure lives in Ottawa. He is a long-retired director of a local private agency. He is also a blogger. You can read more of Dave at Daveintheshack.blogger.com