Bread & Roses

Menu: Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Veggies & Dessert

Serving: Zion Lutheran Church - Ashippun

Dine in AND carry out meals
at 209 North Ninth Street in Watertown, Wisconsin.

We are serving at Immanuel until we move to a new location the end of May.

Bread & Roses is a free, weekly community meal served on Thursdays from 4:30pm-6:00pm.

We serve a wide range of people - elderly, singles, young families, and everyone in between. It is a meal of fellowship for the community. The joy of Bread & Roses is that all are welcome. There is no sign-up or sign-in sheet. There is never a request for a donation. Find an empty chair at a table and enjoy the delicious home cooked meal.

Our community provides monetary donations and volunteers. Most of the meat is purchased by funds that have been donated. We currently have 28 different groups from various churches, businesses, and fraternal organizations that rotate to help prepare, serve and clean up. Desserts, salads and milk are just some items that each group provides each week. If you have never helped at Bread and Roses, please consider volunteering. It is a very rewarding experience and a service that we can all be proud of.

Please note: Bread & Roses will be closed when the Watertown Unified School District cancels classes and on holidays. All closings will be posted on the door at Immanuel.

The original Bread and Roses program was started in 1986 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Then pastor, Rev. Fred Himmerich was one of the founders. After Rev. Himmerich’s retirement the dinners were discontinued. The Immanuel Social Concerns Committee recognized the urgent need in the community to restart this program. After researching this project for one year with the The Clergy Round Table and other agencies it was decided to ask the Immanuel Church Council to undertake this project in the Fellowship Hall. A mass mailing to local businesses, churches and community organizations resulted in a very positive response. Subsequently, in January 1999 Judy Hoffstetter and Jean Kwapil served their first meal to 29 people. In May 2015 Judy and Jean served their last meal at Bread and Roses. Subsequent to that, Bread and Roses Inc. was formed with a board comprised of members of Immanuel Lutheran, Watertown, River Valley Alliance, and United Methodist churches. They were blessed to find another volunteer, Dave Gilbert, to take over preparing the meals. In 2021, Tim & Sherry Errickson began coordinating and cooking the Bread & Roses meals.