Cuisine Unseen: St. Augustine’s Breakfasts Offer More Than Delicious Food

ST. CLOUD -- This week in Cuisine Unseen, we visit the Church of St. Augustine in St. Cloud to check out their monthly brunches.

The church has been putting on these brunches on the first Sunday of every month (excluding the summer) since the early 1960s.

Steve Sauer, of the St. Augustine's Men's Group, says the brunches serve about 850 people on average each time.

"We do it partially for the community...to bring everybody together for the fellowship," Sauer says.

The funds raised by the brunch go towards repairing the parish and the school buildings.

"New doors, new locks, new lights, whatever [needs repairing]," Sauer says.

Over 80 volunteers help to serve the traditional brunches featuring eggs, sausage, hasbrowns, and Swedish egg coffee.

"We like to think we set ourselves apart [from other places] by serving at the tables," Sauer says.

The brunches serve up countless eggs, 250-300 sausage links, and over 200 pounds of hashbrowns each time.

But the biggest attraction is the doughnuts, which are made fresh the morning before each brunch by the church's women's group.

"[The Christian Women's Group] makes the doughnuts as part of their fundraising efforts," Sauer says.

"They make about 275 dozen (3,300) here...it's about three doughnuts per person [in attendance]."

If you're looking for a delicious brunch and a small-town atmosphere, Sauer encourages you to come out to their next brunch of February 1st.

"I think the best part is that it brings the community together - we have people that come from parishes all over the town, and...people [not from other parishes] who just know about our breakfasts," Sauer says.

"Everybody gets to know everybody - you [can] sit next to somebody you might not know, and you know them by the time you leave."

St. Augustine's hosts brunches from 7:30 a.m. to noon on the first Sunday of the month from September to May.