Peggy Winckowski Keeps Cooking Breakfast for Her Late Grandson’s Friends

After her 15-year-old grandson Sam Crowe died in a crash, Peggy Winckowski refused to let the weekly tradition he started fade away. Every Wednesday during the school year, she still rises before dawn in her St. Louis home and cooks a full breakfast for a crowd of his friends.

How the Tradition Began

In 2021, Sam was a freshman at Bishop DuBourg High School. The school had a late start on Wednesdays, so he and a group of classmates usually met at a local diner. One week Sam told them his grandmother could cook better than the restaurant. He invited the friends to her house instead. Peggy scrambled eggs, fried bacon, and made pancakes and cinnamon rolls. The boys loved it. They kept coming back for the rest of the school year, turning Wednesday mornings into a regular gathering around her table.

Tragedy Strikes

In July 2022, Sam was killed in a vehicle crash at age 15. The loss devastated his family and friends. Many of the same teenagers who had shared those breakfasts gathered at Peggy’s house in the days that followed. They mourned together. When the new school year began, the friends wondered if the breakfasts would end. Peggy gave them a simple answer: “I will feed you if you come.”

They did.

A Weekly Ritual of Healing

What started with a small group has grown. On many Wednesdays, 20 to 30 teenagers now fill her kitchen. Peggy often prepares eight to ten pounds of bacon, dozens of eggs, piles of pancakes or French toast, and fresh fruit. The students call her Grandma Peggy. They talk about school, sports, breakups, and everyday life. She listens, hugs them on the way out, and does the dishes after they leave for class.

The weekly meals have become more than food. They give the teens a steady place to process grief and stay connected. For Peggy, the gatherings help fill the quiet left by Sam’s absence. She has said she believes her grandson may have set the tradition in motion so she would not be lonely.

Years later the Wednesday Breakfast Club continues. Some of the original members have graduated, yet new students keep arriving. Peggy still cooks, still opens her door, and still turns a painful loss into something warm and shared every single week.

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