An elderly woman has been patiently waiting for the truck to arrive this afternoon. Behind her in line is a man holding an open bottle of wine in a brown paper bag. Brunson leaves the driver's seat and begins filling one line of foam coffee cups with hot chicken vegetable soup and a second line of cups with hot chocolate. Meanwhile, Joyce Ann Martin is unwrapping bologna sandwiches. Brunson makes sure to put a cardboard box out on the sidewalk to collect trash, explaining Mayor Linsey Porter takes a dim view of litter and a dimmer view of those who create it.
People start appearing as if from nowhere.
While Martin works the window, Brunson keeps filling cups. The Econoline parcel van conversion with a microwave oven, sink and stove, has been making the rounds since 1987. Seven days a week it leaves the Kresge Social Service Center in Southfield, headquarters for the church's Eastern Michigan Division, and makes seven set stops, like the one in Highland Park. Fresh apples get few takers at this stop. But the Reese's peanut butter cups are a big hit.