Family's Version Of 'Date Night' Is Serving Breakfast Every Sunday at Denver Rescue Mission

DENVER (CBS4)- It's a Sunday morning tradition for the Pikas family: serving breakfast to those experiencing homelessness at the Denver Rescue Mission.

"It was fantastic! They serve some really good food around here," said Amanda Pikas.

On the menu were eggs, potatoes, sausage, cheese, and fruit. Amanda and her son were cutting the bagels, while her husband, Tim, was handing out cups of coffee.

"It's pretty busy, but we still have a good time," she said.

The Denver Rescue Mission provides the daily meals for the homeless. Serving 689,781 meals in 2020 and on average 2,500 meals a day between all four of their locations. They are all handed out by volunteers. Tim Pikas started volunteering on Father's Day in 2016 and his family joined him every Sunday from there.

"My wife and I joked, especially at the beginning. It was our new date night," Tim said.

"Oh, I love it! It's the highlight of my week and I'm spending time with my husband and my son," said Amanda said.

But Tim decided to stop serving at the beginning of the pandemic due to health concerns. It was a decision that lasted only two weeks.

"I continued to get emails from the Denver Rescue Mission asking for volunteers, especially at the National Western complex because they just opened up, and I turned to my wife and I said 'Hey, we need to be back out there,'" he said.

As they returned, they noticed the need was greater than ever before.

"I didn't really understand the magnitude of the homeless issues Denver has until I went to the Western Complex. And when we were feeding like 700 people a morning every Sunday, it just blew my mind," he said.

The need is still great, which is why the Pikas family hopes more people joins them every Sunday morning.

"Just do it once just to see what it's like. It's a couple hours out of your day and your good feeling last all week," Amanda said.

CBS4 is partnering with the Denver Rescue Mission to Spread the Warmth this winter. You can help by donating to our spread the warmth campaign by texting "WARMTH" to 24365 to give.