It is early on a Wednesday in St. Louis. Peggy Winckowski’s front door is met by a throng of ravenous teenagers in addition to the sun and the sound of birdsong.

They are all Bishop DuBourg High School students, eager to partake in what they collectively refer to as the Wednesday Breakfast Club, which consists of a hot meal and an embrace from ‘grandma.’

The Breakfast Club acquired a new significance when ‘Grandma Peggy’ lost her grandson Sam Crowe, a sophomore at Bishop Dubourg,

to a hit-and-run last year. It hasn’t always been about bacon, jokes, and bright eyes, though.

The Breakfast Club was originally founded by the youthful Mr Crowe, and it met at a nearby diner. He once declared,

‘My grandma can cook better than this,’ which led to Grandma Peggy’s cooking replacing the subpar restaurant.

A baker’s dozen of teenagers would gather for bacon and eggs every Wednesday until the fatal day in July when they found out about Sam’s passing.

After that, nobody wanted to think about breakfast.That is, until the very next Wednesday, when Peggy got up early to warm skillets, crack eggs, and whisk batter in an attempt to honor her grandson’s memory.

The teenagers returned virtually every Wednesday after that, growing in number so as not to be unwelcome visitors.

‘They spent the entire week coming here,’ Winckowski remarked. ‘All they wanted to do was make sure I was alright.’

She said to Steve Hartman of CBS News, ‘Sam would be so proud.’ ‘It melts my heart to see what he started.’

Mya Dozier, another member of the Breakfast Club, said, ‘She benefits from us, and we benefit from her.’ ‘We seem to feed off one another.’