Established in 1991, Day of Caring is a grass roots organization made up of volunteers committed to increasing personal awareness and involvement toward confronting the ever-increasing national plight of hunger and homelessness.

From the first pancake brunch with 12 locations to 2004’s 27 locations, Day of Caring is continually growing. As in the past, churches, community organizations, and public foundations host, prepare, and serve the annual pancake brunch.

Not only have the number of brunch locations increased but the number of cities, towns, and counties have also grown. In 2004, we had brunches in Clinton, Greene, Miami, and Hamilton counties as well as our hub county of Montgomery and the City of Dayton.

The first brunch involved 12 sites, 250 dedicated volunteers and served approximately 3,000 brunches and donated $8,000 to the Montgomery County Hunger and Housing Coalitions. In 2004, with over 500 volunteers, almost 5,100 people enjoyed a pancake brunch and over $30,000 was provided to Montgomery, Miami, Greene and Clinton Counties. As in years past, communities and their local humanitarian support organizations will continue to benefit from the hard work of our volunteers.

Equally important is our commitment to the increase in the number of free brunches served to local needy people. In addition to each site location providing a limited number of free brunches, one site in Dayton and one site in Cincinnati were dedicated entirely to serving FREE Pancake Brunches directly to the individuals we are so dedicated to help, the underprivileged and homeless. The free pancake brunch in Dayton, held at the House of Bread, was entirely funded and supported by volunteers from Merrill Lynch’s Dayton office. The Modern Technologies Corporation Foundation funded the site in Cincinnati.

Day of Caring is more than just a one-day fundraising event; Day of Caring is first and foremost, designed to create personal awareness. By making people aware of the needs in their community, individuals can come together as one and help. We create opportunities for people to get involved.

In philosophy, Day of Caring is similar to Thanksgiving, where one day a year we come together as a nation to give thanks for our good fortune. Likewise, Day of Caring, through its ever increasing number of volunteers, sets aside one day – the last Sunday in February – where we, the community, can come together to help our less fortunate neighbors.