Every Friday, the Selma Cafe, 722 Soule Blvd. in Ann Arbor, offers a gathering spot for friends and neighbors to enjoy a leisurely breakfast created by local chefs using local ingredients. Recently, Dexter area residents Cindy Hodges and Ellen Bunting volunteered as the chef and sous chef, and served Pannakakku, a Finnish-style pancake similar to a pasty, with spicy ketchup and peaches.

Selma is located on the west side of Ann Arbor in the home of Lisa Gottlieb and Jeff McCabe. Selma's mission is to prepare and develop affordable, accessible, nutritious food while providing a forum for neighbors to exchange ideas, goods, and services to strengthen the community.

More than 80 people ate breakfast at Selma during Hodges and Bunting's kitchen debut on Jan. 28. Hodges was pleased with the breakfast, and Bunting said the experienced staff of volunteers helped it run smoothly.

For McCabe, it was just another bustling Friday in his home.

"It takes dozens of volunteers beginning on Thursday nights and then from 6 a.m. on Friday mornings to make the breakfast happen every week," he said adding that Selma will celebrate its two-year anniversary on Feb. 19.

The breakfasts are open to the public and are at-will donations with a suggested offering of $12 to $15. Proceeds from the meal have allowed Gottlieb and McCabe to fund construction of hoop houses around southeast Michigan to assist local farmers. A hoop house is a plastic structure similiar to a greenhouse used to extend the growing season for vegetables into all four seasons of the year.

"The greens we are using for the breakfasts now (which include spinach, baby kale, and Asian greens) all come from local hoop houses,” McCabe said.

Both Hodges and Bunting have their own food-related missions. Hodges has always loved to cook and started canning when she moved to Dexter in 1992. She teaches cooking and canning classes for Ann Arbor Recreation and Education, and recently had a recipe published in New York Times columnist Molly O'Neil's cookbook, One Big Table.

"The great thing about Selma is the cross section of people it brings together on a Friday morning," Hodges said. "I enjoy meeting new people there every week that care about the local food movement."

"I love Selma because where else can you directly support farmers and the local food system and get a great breakfast in a really great atmosphere?" Bunting said. "I always meet the most interesting people, and there's a feeling of energy and optimism coming from the volunteers doing something they care about."

Barbarab Bowman of Dexter is a volunteer at Selma and said she is impressed at how well people work together.

She said it would be nice to see a community breakfast gathering in Dexter along with other collaborations among local farmers, community members and school gardens.

For more information on the Selma Cafe, visit the restaurant online.