In this file photo from Oct. 23, 2009, student volunteers Kelsey Cherland, center, and Keil Eggers, right, help serve breakfast at First United Methodist Church's Jubilee Cafe, 946 Vermont St.

The Jubilee Cafe is about people.

Sure, anybody with an appetite could show up to the cafe at First United Methodist Church, 946 Vermont St., on Tuesday and Friday mornings and grab something to eat. But the real service was in treating the cafe’s clients — typically the homeless or working poor — like people, said longtime volunteer, advocate and church member Rose Schmidt.

“Part of the intent was not just to provide people with meals, but to provide people with service,” Schmidt said. “To treat them as people of worth that deserve being served a meal in a way any of us would.”

Friday was the Jubilee Cafe’s last meal for the months ahead, possibly forever, Schmidt said. There simply aren’t enough people volunteering, she said.

For more than a decade, the Jubilee Cafe has provided for those in need of a meal and a welcoming place to go, said Colleen Boley, First United’s media manager.

On busy days, the cafe saw more than 100 guests, Boley said. When enough volunteers were available, the guests would sit at tables and be served, like in a restaurant. When the cafe was short of hands, they’d set up the meal buffet-style.

Schmidt said she doesn’t want to diminish the importance of the food itself, but looking at the bigger picture, the cafe’s goal was to help its clients feel like they belonged. A large part of that was being served restaurant-style, she said.

“We can do buffet-style with as few as eight volunteers — that involves cooking, serving a buffet line and cleaning up. And it’s a stretch to do that,” she said. “Serving restaurant-style really takes about 20 people.”

In the past year, volunteers have been so scarce that the cafe has been able to serve its guests restaurant-style fewer than 10 times, Schmidt said.

The cafe is going to close its doors for the summer and reassess the situation, Schmidt said.

“We need to look at this in a more long-term way,” she said. “Is this a sustainable model?”

“If we had 35 people show up that would be wonderful, but not if they’re going to show up once and they’re done,” she added. “And that happens.”

Many of the cafe’s volunteers came from the University of Kansas programs, Schmidt said. But because of recent, statewide changes, schools are no longer allowed to ask students to volunteer when school is not in session. As such, finding large groups of volunteers over the summer months is currently untenable.

Some volunteers also used to come from within the church, Schmidt said. But with the congregation’s aging population, that has become a challenge.

The shortage was also hard on the volunteers who were coming, Schmidt said.

“Frankly, if you’re on the volunteer end of it and you’re scrambling with three to do what you need eight to do, it’s easy to lose sight of why you haul yourself out of bed in the morning,” she said. “You lose sight of the mission, and then it’s just down to the task, and that’s not very good.”

There isn’t a money shortage to speak of, Schmidt said, nor is there a food shortage. It’s really about the lack of people.

“We’re not making a profit, of course, but we do OK financially because it’s pretty easy to write a check,” she said. “But it’s difficult to convince yourself to be there at 5:30 in the morning.”

Because of state and city food programs, Schmidt said she’s not as concerned about people going hungry as she might otherwise have been. She’s still worried about the clients, though.

Some cafe regulars might have money for their own food, but they showed up week after week for a sense of community, Schmidt said. They don’t feel as though they belong, and the Jubilee Cafe was one way for them to have regular, personal interactions.

“Jubilee is their community,” she said. “You might not know their deepest story, but you know them. Those are the people I worry about.”

Plus, many of the volunteers wouldn’t otherwise meet with the less fortunate on such a regular basis, Schmidt said. For them, meeting a homeless person, having a conversation or developing a relationship are important and humanizing experiences — food for the soul, you might say.

“Part of it is stretching your comfort zone,” Schmidt said. “We’re all broken in some way.”

It’s too early to say when the Jubilee Cafe might open again, Schmidt said, though she hopes to start serving again sometime this fall.

Boley said the group might seek out additional help from their congregation and others.

Anyone interested in volunteering can email media@fumclawrence.org or call 785-841-7500.