Loaves And Fishes Soup Kitchen: A Short Story

The agency I participated at for my ten hours of service learning this semester was the Plain City food pantry. The food pantry is located on 156 W Main St, Plain City, OH 43064. There are many people that run this agency. A couple names are Phyllis and Jane. I participated March 2nd from 9:30 to 11:30, March 3rd from 9:00 to 12:00, April 4th, from 9:30 to 11:30 and April 6th from 9:00 to 12:00.

During my second week of my community health hours, I was placed at River City Food Bank. River City Food Bank’s main goal is to lessen hunger in the Sacramento region by offering healthy food and assistance to vulnerable populations. They do not only provide healthy food but they also provide nutrition education and counseling. In addition, they provide diapers for babies and the older population. They also provide health services for mothers and assist them with contraceptives and other important education for their women daily life. Their mission is to help people from all ages, from homeless to the working poor and families who are struggling.

* With the statistics presented earlier on the percentage of families that are hungry but still have homes, it really touched me in the way that a hungry person could be someone that I know or care about.

My community service experience at All Souls Friday Soup Kitchen taught me the impoverished population of New York City and myself. The volunteer work pushed me to better myself in several areas. Serving the diners helped me expand my social skills with fellow workers and customers by forcing me to communicate with others. Also, setting up and deconstructing the dining room helped grow my management skills by having me order where the plates, mugs, etc. should be placed. Most importantly, working at the kitchen helped humanize the poor population of New York City for me. Often on the subway and on the sidewalk, I try my hardest to avoid the homeless man or woman begging for money, acting like they didn’t exist. Gratefully, my experience at

One key aspect of spiritual resistance I found inspiration was the soup kitchens and the people who ran them. Many Jews even quoted that to them “soup kitchens were more than just soup kitchens” as they did so much more in soup kitchens than just receive daily portions of food. The soup kitchens had a big impact on Jewish life within the ghettos as it was a place that reminded them to not only rise about the poor treatment they were receiving by Nazi’s but to also keep alive their cultural traditions and show empathy towards their fellow peers. Many people had a big role in maintaining the soup kitchens throughout the ghettos from the Jewish social self-help group known as the Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna to the employees that were hired. This

Catonsville emergency food ministries (CEFM), which provides food, and household supplies to the homeless and needy population, is where I did three hours of my service hours. All though this was not my first choice, as I thought I could not learn anything from it, and it would be boring and not engaging. I was wrong; I didn’t know the work and knowledge that went into planning, for the day to day operation of a food bank. The building itself was small, and lack adequate space for storage, and working. The week prior they lost all of their meat supplies due to a freezer malfunction, which left a slight death smell in the building. The volunteers were very nice and helpful in showing me around, and answering question. I was actually surprised that one of the volunteers was 16, and was doing it just to get out of the house.

This past summer, I acquired an internship at Baldwin and Lyons, an insurance company in Indianapolis. Every Wednesday during my internship, a couple of employees and I would participate in a prodigious community service project, Meals on Wheels. Throughout the three months that I worked at Baldwin and Lyons, I got acquainted with some of the individuals whom we delivered to. These inspiring individuals were so grateful and appreciative that we took time out of our day to volunteer to do such a service. One elderly woman who we delivered to would sing to us as she came to the front door “good meals, good meals, good meals.” She is one woman that I will never forget. First going into this, I was elated knowing I was I getting out of the

Service is an extremely important part of my life. I believe that through service we are able to serve God. I’ve always been an active member of my parish, Our Lady of Lourdes. Lourdes serves as a family for me, and through this family, I’m blessed with opportunities that allow me to serve my Lord. In 2011, I began volunteering at Our Lady of Lourdes’ Sunday Meal for the Homeless. We provide dinner for local Homeless people in the area of Bethesda, Maryland. I started service here because, I needed service hours for my confirmation, but its become such a joy in my life to see these men and women every Sunday, and I continue to serve them even to this day. Another service opportunity Lourdes has provided me with is the ability to volunteer at

She also said that when lunch was two bags of cornflakes an apple, they would throw the bag hard enough to bruise the fruit, which was unnecessarily rude. One thing she said that was pretty heartbreaking was, “as if I could preserve some dignity, I didn’t eat what hit the floor. As if I had some power, I wouldn’t pick up what they would drop, at least initially, solitary shrinks a person with helplessness,”. She then gave an example how one time the guard threw her tray, causing gravy and vegetables to spill on the floor and for once she actually picked up three peas from the “muck” but was then mortified by behavior no one else would ever see. It comes to show that no human should every go through something like that, whatever the situation may be.

Who expected sharing a meal with a homeless individual would become a crime. We live in a world where so many are tone-deaf to problems that are greatly affecting our society. One is the many

It relates back to those who I helped at the homeless mission that day. I continue to volunteer at this homeless mission at least twice a month or so. Year’s back, One gentleman had really touched my heart and it was extremely hard for me to see him going through such a hard time in his life. It was around the holiday season, and he had no family so I kindly invited him over for a thanksgiving dinner. I picked him up from where he was residing, and I brought him back to my house. This was his first home cooked me in a long time, and had not been in a place that was not a run down building or abandoned house. As we pulled up the gate guard, I knew that he was instantly going to be in an uncomfortable situation, which was at that time a culture shock for him. I know he had never experienced anything but being on the streets and to come into a nice side of town with guards to get in, it had to be tough. He had known me in a City Mission volunteer shirt and raggedy clothes, and to come in to a house where everything is so extravagant, left him in a culture

The center is a day-time shelter, with long dining tables and chairs with a sitting capacity of 160 for homeless people. I observed the daily activities of card playing, loud laughter of happy people and chatter about what lunch might be at the homeless resource center. I noticed people starting forming a line against the wall. I checked the time and saw it was 11:15 a.m. a conditioned time for people to line up to eat lunch. More people entered the front door after being scanned in through a finger print process, which extended

Volunteering at a local soup kitchen has become an important activity that humbles me, having witnessed the difficulties this population faces. The Christian Medical Association Homeless Meals Program at Wayne State University School of Medicine will allow me to continue this type of community outreach.

I chose to volunteer at a Christnet Rotating Shelter Program that was at the time located at a local church. This program does not have a permanent location, rather, various accommodating churches host the program. Additionally, this program offers not only daytime programs, but also nightly shelter. However, for this assignment, I opted for an observation of the program’s participants at nighttime. Moving on, I showed up more than an hour early before the sign-in sheets would be distributed to individuals seeking shelter for the night so that I could assist the other volunteers with adjusting the layout of the room and assembling the tables and beds in order to accommodate the needs of the guests. Afterwards, people began to line up outside the church’s door about 6:15 p.m. even though

Have you ever wondered where you would rest your head at night? Where you would find your next meal? How would support your family given unforeseen sudden circumstances? I’ve never thought about the importance of these questions until a recent experience I had volunteering at a food pantry. There are organizations whose main purpose is to help those in need and provide resources to members of the community who are going through difficult times. A food pantry is a non-profit community serviced organization that provides members of the community with groceries and resources. From volunteering at this food pantry I learned more than ever to never “judge a book, by its cover”, or in other words, even though I person may look well put together on the outside, you never know what it is they are dealing with on the inside. I’ve encountered homeless members of the community, people who have suffered from physical abuse, and people who have experienced unexpected disasters such as house fires to expected job layoffs while volunteering at a food pantry. I’ve also come to appreciate everything that I have in my life from the roof over my head to the food in my stomach and that some people are less fortunate than me.