ZLS Breakfast carry-out a successful event for local school

 

[February 08, 2022]   Saturday morning those who were hungry for great pancakes and sausage were filing in a few at a time at Zion Lutheran School.

This year, in light of health and safety concerns the breakfast was carry-out only but it still appeared that the cookers and servers were staying busy filling orders.

Zion Lutheran School has been holding an annual breakfast the first Saturday in February since 1976. Typically the breakfast includes hundreds of people flocking in at the beginning of the morning, with a steady stream of folks coming and going throughout the morning.

The issues with coronavirus last year brought a halt to the family friendly gathering at the school. To compensate, and help raise at least a portion of the funds the school relies on for its annual budget, a pre-order meat sale was held with buyers picking up meat in a drive-thru scenario.

The school had hoped that by this year, it would be able to return to the old style event that the community seems to love so much. However, the Omicron variant of the coronavirus dashed that hope, and the number of those getting the new variant at breakfast planning time was sky-rocketing in Logan County and around the country.

But, at the same time, the school needed and wanted to keep at least a portion of the traditional breakfast in play. So, a plan was put together for a carry out style breakfast with the locally grown, processed, and stuffed sausage that the school has made a name for itself with. The breakfast of course also included the pancakes that have long been a favorite.

To keep up the silent auction, there was also a call for donations of gift baskets and other items that shoppers could bid on while passing through the line to get their breakfast. And, the annual meat sale went on pretty much as usual. The only exception to the meat order was that everything needed to be ordered in advance. The same was true with the carry-out breakfast.

On Saturday morning, Interim Principal Ann Chandler stood at the front door, greeting guests as they arrived, and making sure that everyone was headed in the right direction.

Face masks were required by everyone entering the building, regardless of the vaccination status, and for those coming in bare-faced, masks were provided.

Guests were invited to walk down the hall to the gymnasium entrance where they were greeted by a second hostess who explained the layout inside the gymnasium. The layout permitted guests to peruse the silent auction items on their way to the carry out assembly line.

After picking up their meals, they were to follow the layout through the gym and exit from a separate door. If they were to pick up meat, the order table for that was set up at the opposite end of the gym and two volunteers’ verified orders and got meat bagged up for the buyers.

This year, in addition to the silent auction items, there were many tables set up with class displays that included arts and crafts from the younger students, examples of learning materials from the classrooms of the older students, a nice display on the schools music program and much more.

While it wasn’t the same as it has been in the past, it seemed to be working out well for the school. At the prime time of the day, around 8:30 a.m., everyone was busy but it was not crowded or rushed, and social distancing was quite easy to accomplish.

While there are many who are hopeful that next year, the breakfast will return as normal, it is good to know that for this year at least, plenty of folks had the pleasure of enjoying fresh-made pancakes and the ZLS signature sausage from the comfort of their home.

[Nila Smith]