Location: Breaking Bread Ministries/LaSalle Street Church
Date: Wednesday, February 05, 2014; 5:45-9:00 pm
I was waiting for it and sure
enough, in the afternoon I got an email from Thomas asking if I could lead the
project or should he just cancel it because of snow. Well, I’m sure there was a middle ground here
somewhere, but I agreed to lead and so that was settled. I usually prefer to send welcome emails to
the volunteers and today was no exception.
However, unlike other times, I used the Chicago Cares leadership portal
to send my message. Very soon one person
dropped out, though two others signed up, including Wilson. I printed the attendance sheet and arrived at
the site a little before the start time.
Marianne, whom I hadn't seen for some time was there this evening and
she even remembered me and gave me a hug.
For once Keith recognized me, though he misspoke my name as usual. Aah well, baby steps.
Wilson was already there and soon
my other volunteers arrived – Laura, Lindsey and Rahul. There were others who were volunteering
directly with ‘Breaking Bread’,
including regular’s like Joe, and newcomers like a couple who had recently
moved from England. But it still looked
like we were going to be lighter than usual.
I put Wilson and Rahul on chopping the lettuce and tomatoes for the
salad and Laura went over to help crack eggs – dozens and dozens of eggs. I had to learn how to use an industrial
sized, table mounted can opener to open cans of fruits. After straining
them, the British couple took over the task of chopping the three types of fruits – peaches,
pears and mandarin oranges. The syrup made my gloves sticker with the opening of each can and it was just making
it that much more difficult to get a grip.
I chatted with the couple and we discussed British TV shows – which are
the best – and football – otherwise known as soccer here. The cans were never ending and after doing
this for a while, I passed it to Lindsey and went over to check on the rest of
my team.
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| The washing station |
Wilson and Rahul and finished
with the chopping and were now mixing the dressing, followed by the
distribution into 21 bowls. We finished
that, as well as the fruit salad and placed them on the racks and into the refrigerator. Laura had finished cracking the eggs and was
now helping scramble them, while a group of three women were making toast. Marianne asked me to assign someone to the “Nurse duty” and I asked Lindsey if she
would do it. Then she needed someone to
help wash the bigger pots and pans and I put Rahul on it. This task was to be done at the back of the
room, which had 3 huge basins that were the wash, rinse and sanitize
stations. We filled them up, ready for
the utensils to come in.
The guests were filtering in and
now it was time for our group huddle with Keith and Marianne. Keith started by asking how many were new and
since almost everyone except me and Wilson were there for the first time, what
he had to say would be important for them to listen to – though the British
couple had to leave and thus missed this important part. Besides his usual speech, he mentioned a
young man who was in attendance and whom Keith had met a few days ago and had
helped him get some clothes and medicine.
Then he introduced Marianne, saying that she wasn’t in the best of
health and had some other concerns, but is a real trooper if there was
one. He told us how she had recently
visited one of the guests who comes here, in the hospital. I mean its one thing to serve, but it takes a
far greater nobility to really care. But
that’s Marianne for you.
Marianne reminded us to not give
the guests any money and then assigned duties.
I usually start by distributing the juice, but since we didn't have any
today, I was going to help plate. As
usual, we prayed before going out and entered the dining area to see it full of
our guests. Two gentlemen would be
providing the entertainment for tonight, one on a piano and the other on drums. The menu was ‘Breakfast Food’, which I should have guessed with all the
eggs. Keith made a sample plate of eggs,
one toast and one turkey sausage. With
no desserts, it wasn’t much, but I hoped that the guests would have the
salads. Speaking of which, I asked
Marianne if we could consolidate tables so as not to waste the salads and she
said that while it was a good idea, they never dictated where the guests should
sit. Well, I tried.
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| Tonight's menu |
We started with the plating and the
servers were off. No sooner had we done
that, than there was a line for seconds.
We could not find any takeout boxes, so it was going to be Aluminum foil
for people who wanted to carry the food home.
The second’s line was very long, which was to be expected since the
initial portions had been less. In fact
one gentleman came for a third time, trying to hide his earlier package in his
pocket. Well, I was certainly not going
to call him out on that. But, there were
some considerate people, like one gentleman who said that after seeing we did
not have much, he would not take more than he needed. We started the clean-up and once again, it
was disappointing to see a lot of salad being wasted. I helped bring in the salt and pepper
shakers, folded tables and stacked chairs.
We were done well ahead of the 9 pm end time and I thanked the
volunteers for braving the weather and coming. ‘Breaking
Bread’ is having a ‘Valentine’s Day’
dance on Friday and which is open to anyone who wants to attend. Wilson asked if they required volunteers and
they said that it would be appreciated.
I was pretty certain this would show up on ‘Meetup’ by end of the night and have ten's of volunteers signed up
before the event. I thanked Marianne and
Keith and left. It was good to have come back after missing a month.
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