Estranged from her family in Thunder Bay, and near destitute in Guelph, Brenda Harris was grateful for the toasty warm, homey atmosphere of Squirrel Tooth Alice’s Wednesday morning.
The restaurant’s owner, Bob Aragona, has been serving a good breakfast at the 649 Scottsdale Drive establishment for nearly 10 years. But Wednesday was the first time he offered a free breakfast to those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in the city.
Aragona expected about 25, got fewer than that, but said he would like to make the Holiday Season breakfast an annual event.
“It feels good to do this,” he said. “It would have been nice to have more, to fill up those tables. But we wanted to give back to the community, and this is a good way to help out.” About 12 people took the restaurant up on the offer.
Aragona thanked Red Car Service for making the morning possible. A company van picked up those who gathered at Welcome In Drop-In Centre in the downtown and took them up to Aragona’s restaurant. The guests could order whatever they fancied from the breakfast menu.
The act of giving, Aragona said, piggybacked on a charitable effort organized by Mike Czernecki, a loyal Squirrel Tooth Alice’s customer and a Polycon Industries employee, who coordinated a drive to fill 28 backpacks for the homeless in the city.
“Offering us a free breakfast is a pretty generous and thoughtful thing,” said Harris. “This time of year is pretty stressful and depressing for a lot of people, because we don’t have family around. It’s a lonely time without your children or family. So this is pretty nice.”
She said the food and the service were excellent. Others at the breakfast table agreed.
Contributors to Mike Czernecki’s backpack drive included Polycon, Squirrel Tooth Alice’s, McNeil Products, Zehrs Markets, Costco, McDonalds, and Hammond Manufacturing, among several others.
