It's just before 10 a.m. on Monday and a man wearing a blue ball cap puts down two bags heaving with empty beer bottles outside the Beer Store.

He stands up, sweating and breathing heavily.

Jason McGibbon hands him a ham and cheese sandwich wrapped in plastic.

McGibbon, pastor of the Hamilton Fellowships Church, organizes a group of volunteers who provide free coffee, water and sandwiches to people dropping off carts brimming with empty cans and bottles at the busy Beer Store location on Dundurn Street.

"We're just a couple people with extra sandwiches trying to love our neighbour," he said.

The refreshments the volunteers bring are deeply appreciated by Tim Martin, who is trying to find work as a cook.

"If you've been running around for a few hours getting empties, it's really good to come here and get some food, especially coffee," he said.

But food is only part of the experience for Martin: "If you want to make a spiritual connection, these people allow that. There's no pressure of going to a church or anything like that."

McGibbon, 38, said the idea started a little over a year ago when his wife realized people in the neighbourhood were rummaging through blue boxes for bottles and cans: "(Then) we saw people lined up outside the beer store on a Monday. So we wondered how we could serve those people."

On July 15, the group of six beer store angels prepared the food at McGibbon's nearby house and walked over to the store. On their arrival at 9:40 a.m. seven men waited on the sidewalk with carts and bags full of liquor bottles, wine bottles and beer cans. The volunteers approached the men and offered hot coffee from a large black thermos.

"We know we aren't solving poverty and homelessness but it's an entrance point to building relationships," McGibbon said. "It gives us a chance to put names and faces to things we only read about in the newspaper."

He said all of their bread and food are donated through church members and by Cobs Bread in Oakville.

"It's more than we can use so we take the rest to Mission Services on James Street North," he said.

While McGibbon leads a short prayer meeting with some of the men, another volunteer speaks with the man wearing a blue baseball cap.

"Professionally I'm a photographer but this is what I do in my free time," said George Qua-Enoo, also a member of Hamilton Fellowships Church.

He said he volunteers on Monday mornings to offer companionship to the community: "People feel valued and that they matter when we listen to them. And some people feel marginalized and they just want to vent."

Ray Brown is one of the regulars who have been meeting with the volunteers for more than a year. He lives in homeless shelters and says those Monday morning meetings are valuable to him.

"It's good right now because people need that extra food," he said. "I had some problems with drinking and with the courts (but) I just fell in love with this."

McGibbon said there are three or four people who show up every week at the Beer Store, dropping off their empties and meeting with the volunteers. Sometimes there are as many as 15 or 20 people.

By 10:20 a.m. most of the men have returned their empties, enjoyed some food and left. A man in a sweaty, white shirt wearing a black backpack approaches McGibbon, who pours him a coffee and hands him two cream packets.

"It's a little selfish but I get as much as I give," McGibbon said. "These guys coming here, sharing themselves with me — I've learned a lot and grown to be more compassionate."

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His congregation meets at members' homes and doesn't have a centralized church.

"We're going for more of an organic approach through community and building relationships," he said. "We're going for being missional, as we call it, really trying to impact our community in positive ways."

For more information or to offer donations, contact McGibbon at 289-684-3477 or visit www.hamiltonfellowships.com.