Those served and those serving praise Mustard Seed

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER - The Mustard Seed, a Catholic Worker ministry at 93 Piedmont St., is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month. Ask anyone at the free supper there about their involvement, and you’ll get a variety of stories about serving or being served.
Seated at one of the new picnic tables in the Mustard Seed’s yard on a recent warm fall evening, Mark Lareau said he’s related to Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day.
“I don’t remember her,” he said, but it’s “kind of grandiose” to have such a relative.
He said he first came to the Mustard Seed when it was in a three-decker. That building was destroyed by fire in the 1980s. Over the years Mr. Lareau would stop in to get a meal, but now he comes regularly, since he lost his companion and the place where he was living, he said.
At the picnic table with Mr. Lareau, Rachel McMorris was socializing and getting a bite to eat.
“You’re welcomed” here, she said. “You’re brought in with caring, concern about the whole person. … That’s how I feel when I come here.”
George Bergstrom, seated at a nearby table, expressed similar sentiments: “Very nice place; they treat us very well.” He said he’s a retired nurse, a social person, and he drives others to the meals and stays to eat too.
“It’s a great resource in the city of Worcester for those who are less fortunate,” he said.
Among those talking at his table was Regina Guthro.
“My boys and I came here” 28 years ago when living at Abby’s House, a shelter for women and their children, she said. “There’s numerous times we’ve struggled to eat.”
She said she now has an apartment and works part time at Burger King, goes to the free meal at St. John’s Church in the morning and comes to the Mustard Seed in the evening to “have a nice meal.” She said she tells many people about these two resources, and sometimes helps at the Mustard Seed when needed.
Her brother-in-law Robert Joseph Guthro, 65, is perhaps the longest-serving volunteer. He said he was 18 when he came to what was then a three-decker, invited by Michael Boover, one of the first Mustard Seed members.
“I come here early afternoon and get ready for these guys” Monday through Friday year-round - “if I ain’t busy,” Mr. Guthro said. “It keeps me occupied.”
David Carney, a more recent volunteer, brings Clark University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute students from Intervarsity Christian Fellowship to serve meals.
“I think it helps them to take a break from campus life and enter into the lives of people from different age groups and backgrounds,” he said. “For me it’s very humbling, and I really enjoy getting to know the people.” He said he sees himself as a peer of those he serves; he and they all need God and community.
“It’s a humbling experience,” echoed Eugenia Agurimah, one of those Clark University students. “You see people – some are less privileged.”
What does she learn?
“That we’re all the same; God created them the same as he created me.”
Another college student, WPI senior Margaret Earnest, said she’s been serving at the Mustard Seed since the end of last year.
“I wanted to do some service in the community, because I did a lot of that growing up,” she said. She looked for possibilities online and on a list at her school and started coming to the Mustard Seed.
Asked what keeps her coming, she replied, “It’s good to serve.”