Any students out and about this evening who are looking for some free late-night chow are invited to the Summit University Methodist Church for breakfast.

The Jericho Road Breakfast is held from midnight to 3 a.m. on the first Friday of every month.

The breakfast has been held by the Campus Ministries group at the church for the past four years. The leaders of the team that prepare the monthly event are the husband-wife team of Mark and Jan Johnson.

“The idea of Jericho Road is based on a parable Jesus told in the Bible involving the good Samaritan,” Mark Johnson said.

The mission of the breakfast is to do as the Samaritan did – to treat all as neighbors, with care and hospitality.

“We want to have the students feel they are welcome as our neighbors,” Jan Johnson said.

The Johnsons have been involved with the breakfast for the last three years. Karen Spiecher came up with the idea of the breakfast in the spring of 1998 and has been making everything from scratch ever since.

Eventually, the Student Affairs Late Night Initiative picked up the tab for the costs of providing and preparing the food.

Various student organizations, including the greek community, volunteer to help out with the breakfast. The Bucket and Dipper junior-class honorary organization spearheaded the volunteer effort this year, led by Alisha Taxtell.

“We (Bucket and Dipper) enjoy giving back to the community,” Taxtell said. “It’s something we look forward to.”

There are almost 30 members of her organization that help out with the breakfast throughout the night, Taxtell said.

The menu of the late-night breakfast includes pancakes with syrup, scrambled eggs, sausage links and toast. Beverage choices are milk and orange juice.

There used to be sausage gravy served along with the breakfast. However, keeping it at a proper temperature became a problem, as did the clean-up.

Setup for the event begins at about 11 p.m. on Friday, and the food is prepared beginning at 11:30 p.m.

The church does not get a lot of visitors until about 1 a.m., when many students come in. Another rush comes at 2 a.m., when another drove of hungry co-eds enters looking for sustenance.

A Christian musical group, appropriately named The Samaritans, performs throughout the night. In addition to Christian songs, the group also plays some pop tunes like “Hang On Sloopy,” said Mark Johnson, who plays keyboard for the group in addition to other duties.

Throughout the course of the night about 125 pounds of eggs, 30 pounds of sausage, 1,500 pancakes and 35 loaves of bread are consumed by students, Mark and Jan Johnson said.

Thirty-two gallons of orange juice and 5 gallons of milk are gulped down by the mass of people invading the church on Friday nights.

The last mass feeding served approximately 850 students.

Patrons of the breakfast are thankful for the food and hospitality shown by the volunteers.

“I love going to the church for breakfast,” said Steve Breehl, a senior in engineering. “It’s free food, it’s great.”

Breehl said he came to the breakfasts for the good food and friendly people.

“I wish it was every Friday,” he said.

Kurt Farnsworth, an OSU alumnus in agriculture business, said he still enjoys coming to campus to meet with friends and to get some breakfast.

“The people are always nice,” Farnsworth said. “It’s a good place to go if you have the midnight munchies.”

The volunteers for the breakfast said they get a lot of satisfaction from the duties they perform in the wee hours of the night.

“All of the students are very grateful,” Taxtell said. “They are always complimenting us on the food, telling us to keep up the good work.”

“It’s a good feeling,” Taxtell said. “You feel like you are really giving to the community. It’s a huge success.”

Mark Johnson said the event was well worth the trouble.

“The students have been so appreciative and actually have taken great care of our building,” Johnson said. “We are really appreciative of them and think that this is a good example of what students can be.”