Reinvigorating coffee and donuts after Sunday Mass

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Is there any possibility to have the coffee and donuts in a different area?
Unfortunately there is not a different area to have our donuts. Our reception area is twice as big as it used to be but still quite small. But then again since our attendance is small maybe a change in venue would be worth a try. Just no space for tables and chairs.
 
“Tis_Bearself said:
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
Even Dunkin’ offers fresh fruit and yogurt and such.
If you mean “sold out” every time I go into Dunkin, then yeah they’re out. Maybe I just live in donut happy towns. People like them here.
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Learned something interesting yesterday about Dunkin Donuts. At least in my area, and I think corporate wide, they have phased out most of their filled donuts (lemon, apple, chocolate kreme, etc - though they still have jelly donuts. And they have gotten rid of things that are allergens (i.e. peanuts, etc) Also some other flavors are gone. The manager said they were, one, having problems with litigation - being sues by someone with an allergic reaction) and two, they were going back to their core donuts and offering more muffins etc. They have said goodbye to the old standbys I have enjoyed for years. And I have said goodbye to Dunkin Donuts.
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Huh, now that you mention it the apple ones have gone missing. I miss those and also the ones filled with white cream (not yello “Boston kreme” which I never saw growing up in the Midwest and was not pleased to encounter at age 18 on the East Coast). Fortunately, Wawa sells a lot of good pastries and my donut selections are pretty pedestrian like “old fashioned”, jelly, and French cruller, so I haven’t really been bothered by phase outs.
 
O my. My sister has precisely the same complaint. She keeps looking for that white cream. She calls the usual stuff “Barbarian Cream.”
 
Yeah, we don’t have tables and chairs out, like, to sit together. There are a few stand up tables (bar height?) and the chairs that are always in the vestibule.

Its more stand about and chat. Maybe try splitting it and have some items in the vestible with a "more treats available _______ " sign for those that do enjoy a longer or seated conversation.
 
The white cream is apparently found only in Krispy Kreme donuts on East Coast. Once you get to about Pittsburgh and west, it’s everywhere. I hate to say this but that yellow custard has always reminded me of snot.
 
Also, for those of you discussing cream, jelly or fruit filled donuts, they are disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourselves. If it doesn’t have white or pink frosting and spinkles why would you eat it?! 😋

…or blueberry glaze. There is no way a real blueberry was ever in the same room as those donuts but who cares?! Nom nom.
 
I’m going to do what I do best and overthink this.

At the parish closest to me (which I belong to technically but I’m not active there) they’ve had coffee and donuts for decades following the 8:30AM Mass. The 10:30 has never had coffee and donuts after and if families were there early to get their kids to CCD they really couldn’t partake because of the communion fast. Where’s the fun in that? After that Mass it’s “dinner time” around here and if families don’t scatter to various activities they are going to have a meal together, not donuts.

Times have changed and families have difficulty sitting down to a meal together and if they would rather have brunch at home or a restaurant over coffee and donuts after Mass I think they’s opt for a meal together.

Parish families alread share a meal together and as far as fellowship, Catholics have to start being a little more fellowshippy and less judgy if they want the parish family to come together voluntarily.
 
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Joe_5859 said:
We can more and more get away with living a life of minimal interaction with other people.
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This.

I’m seeing this more and more with young people who really seem scared to interact with people. There’s tons of jokes and memes on the internet in places where kids go that make this seem cute or funny.
Or you see a bunch of kids hanging out together, but all looking at their separate phones.
It’s like they’ve reverted to the “parallel play” stage of toddlerhood.
 
1Lord1Faith said:
I think it’s a change in the general attitude that people have. It has nothing to do with the quality of the snacks and beverages.
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I would tend to agree. Growing up we knew all our neighbors and now I rarely see any of the people who live around me except when they are going to or from their cars. Many seem a bit startled if you wave or say hello.

I suspect much of it has to do with how we perceive community. I know many people who talk about all their online friends, but who would be hard pressed to say when they last physically ate dinner with a friend. Add to that the mobility of people now and I think many people aren’t interested or concerned with getting to know the people in front of them because either of them might move in the next week, month, or year. Because of that they often don’t want to make the effort to form a human connection that won’t last.
 
That is so funny - I agree. I think a number of Catholics interact more online with other Catholics than in their parishes. There always is a core group at every parish I’ve been at that is really engaged - they interact. The volunteers, the choir, etc. But the larger group of Catholics, 3/4 of them anyway, just to seem to go in and out. This is of course very sad (and you can debate that it is even unhealthy or antisocial) but it is a Catholic reality.

In the more developed Western countries where Catholics are doing this more and more I think this shift needs to be acknowledged, understood by the Church - the role that media is playing in Catholics’ lives, the local disengagement and the stronger wider Catholic media connections. It’s fascinating, also a little weird. I don’t see how you stop it. Of course it is easy to see it as ‘bad’ - I agree - but there might be some good in there too. The point about feeling you have something in common online is a great one. Why doesn’t that happen in local parishes I wonder. You can look at the media thing as kind of a Band-Aid, at least there is some connection there.
 
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I think more people these days get committed to a particular Catholic activity than to a parish. The person who is really into Flame of Love cenacle will be going to the Holy hour at 2 or 3 churches offering that. The guy who runs the local pro-life march at my local parish here is actually from a parish about 15 miles away and is working with people from a bunch of different parishes. I did the march a couple times to the local clinic and a lot of the people were not from the local parish, though some were. Maybe these people are also active in their local parishes, but as you said the Internet makes it easier to find things going on that aren’t necessarily parish-based like they would have been back when it was harder to gather info.
 
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We have a monthly tea and bacon butty event after Mass (a butty is a sandwich, for the Americans :)) Doughnuts would be great, I think I’d rather have that!

It’s rather random, as it’s after the first Mass and there’s nothing after the second one! However, we’re looking at different ways to bring our parish together, as we have a new priest with new ideas.
 
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My local church has tea ,coffee and biscuits and I would loved to have had a cuppa over the years but my teenagers
wernt really interested ,usually tired on a Sunday morning .Thats one thing I look forward to when they’ve left the nest 🙂
 
My parish has Mass at 8:00 and 10:30. Once a month, PCCW has a breakfast social between the two Masses. They offer the bread and egg casserole, often several varieties. Then there is fresh fruit, and some doughnuts. Free will offering. Because it is more elaborate and less frequent, it is well-attended. I have seen Msgr. eat very quickly, timing the fast to the minute. We do not have CCD on weekends. Our parish is very active and social.
 
Monday night our group is having a BBQ. The group is a prayer/evangelisation group of people from across the Diocese who meet at a different parish church to mine. Okay we can only rustle up an average attendance of 13 (plus Father). Father has insisted we share his Polish sausages on Monday night when he will set up the BBQ. So I am bringing the bread rolls and 3 others are bringing something - I think the rest are still in shock.
I think that he is trying to divert the leaders from some of their potential planned activities and get everyone to know each other properly.

Just wonder if I should bring some ketchup as well?
 
Once a month our Knights of Columbus puts on a Communion Breakfast that kind of lasts until no one is left around to eat. Eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, ham, scrapple, biscuits, coffee, juice, cut up fruit.

Well attended.

The kids scarf up most everything.

A basket is set out on a table for free-will offerings.

Everybody likes it.
 
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