In 1961 at the North Scituate Baptist Church May Breakfast, above, a cup of coffee is poured by Mrs. Orton S. Richardson as Robert Parker looks on. At left, a photo from 1959 shows congregants at Oak Lawn Community Baptist Church getting ready for their May Breakfast. From left are Mrs. Melvin Johnson, co-chairman; Cherie Siner; Joyce Carlson; Mrs. Alden Thompson, co-chairman; Wendie Siner; Richard Garth; Marshall Bowen and Dick Johnson.

Journal / Files

It’s May Breakfast time in Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts, and although longtime residents of the two states may be accustomed to seeing big May Breakfast signs outside churches and Legion Halls at this time of year, others may scratch their heads, wondering what there is about May that means “breakfast.”

The custom of holding a May Breakfast in this area goes back to 1867, when Cranston’s Oak Lawn Community Baptist Church held the very first one, a two-day fundraiser based on the English tradition of celebrating May Day on the first day of the month. More than 140 years later, Oak Lawn’s is still one of the largest in the state, and it’s always held on May 1, today, 6 to 11 a.m.

Around the region, more than 40 May Breakfasts are held from late April to mid-May, most of them on weekends. A listing of upcoming ones is on this page below. Each of them has its own traditions and customs: Some are big stand-in-line buffet-style affairs, such as Oak Lawn’s; others are sit-down events more like restaurant meals, with church members or church youth acting as wait staff. Still others incorporate related activities such as nature walks. Attending a particular May Breakfast is a tradition of its own among many people, who go to the same one year after year as a way of greeting neighbors and friends after the long winter.

One of the first May Breakfasts of this season was the one held Saturday at Tiverton’s Old Stone Church. There, the atmosphere was casual, with children of the church taking orders for breakfast from customers seated at long tables in the church hall. Among the dozens who attended were Lois Goulart of Little Compton, who says she comes every year, and her grandson Joshua Ray, 4, who was visiting from North Carolina. The hand-lettered menu detailed what there was to eat: scrambled eggs, bacon, home fries, white toast, orange juice, coffee, pancakes and jonnycakes.

Each May Breakfast has its own traditions. The Old Stone Church does not do May Baskets, which many churches do, including Warwick’s Norwood Baptist Church, which on Saturday will hold its 83rd annual May Breakfast. Last week, members of the church gathered to demonstrate some of what’s involved in serving a sit-down breakfast to hundreds of people.

As at many May Breakfasts, at Norwood the men do the cooking and the clean-up, while the women do the baking and serving. Mike Kelley starts things off at 3 a.m., making the first pot of coffee, and other members of the kitchen crew begin cooking shortly afterward. Among them are Kyle Sjoberg, Manny Medeiros, John Benander, George Barrett, and 30-year veteran Paul Prochet, who says he “does a little bit of everything.”

The first customers start showing up at 7 a.m., and from then until 10 a.m. the men will be making eggs to order and cooking bacon, ham and home fries pretty much nonstop for more than 250 people. Kelley estimates he’ll make 600 cups of coffee for the day. Then the clean-up lasts until around noon.

Many May Breakfasts are buffets, but at Norwood the diners are seated at long tables in the church hall and are served breakfast on real plates and coffee in real cups. They use real utensils –– not plastic. “We do have a commercial dishwasher here, so that makes it possible,” said Benander. Among the church women baking and serving for the breakfast are June Hall, Sue D’Antuono, Kathy Barclay, Lucille Medeiros, Joan Lefebvre and Eleanor Morris –– who at 92 is the oldest member of the Norwood church and also its unofficial historian. It was her mother, Waity Milner, who organized the first Norwood May Breakfast on May 1, 1926, a fundraiser for the rebuilding of the original church building, which had been destroyed by fire that year.

Morris is not alone in having generational ties to the Norwood church and its breakfasts. D’Antuono said, “My grandmother, my mother and my aunt, and my daughter all were involved with the breakfasts. It’s something our family always does.”

The Norwood church may have originated its long-time custom of serving dessert with breakfast. Women of the church make pies –– dozens of pies, including a sugar-free custard and a wonderful apple-crumb pie –– which are served along with the meal. There are also many varieties of home-made muffins, as well as cereals and juices. While some May Breakfast menus include pancakes or traditional cornmeal jonnycakes, Norwood’s features the pies instead.

Besides doing the baking, the church women also help make up a table of May Baskets for sale at the breakfast. Some of the baskets contain the traditional May flowers such as violets and crocuses which can soon be planted in gardens, and others –– more elaborate –– have been donated by local businesses. These may contain gift certificates, pantry items, toys, or anything else that might pique a buyer’s interest.

It takes about 50 church members to prepare, cook and serve the breakfast at Norwood –– a lot of work, but it’s worth it, they say. Pastor George Barclay, currently in his 15th year at the church, explained that the purpose of the May Breakfast is multi-fold: “It’s a fundraiser, but it’s also much more than that. It’s an opportunity for us to build bridges with the community, to let others experience us in a different way.”

Tickets for the Norwood breakfast cost $7 for adults, $4 for children ages 5 to 12, but free tickets are given to neighbors of the church and as thank-yous to others who have supported the church’s activities over the year.

Beyond the money raised for the church (some of which goes to support programs such as the Rhode Island Family Shelter, South Providence Neighborhood Ministries and a mission to El Salvador), there are other more intangible benefits to holding the annual May Breakfast, said Barclay:

“It’s just a wonderful way for us to come together and work on this. After so many years, it’s down to something of a science, but every year this process of doing something together helps us, too, by bringing us together as a group.”

kimbrie@projo.com