Location: Breaking Bread Ministries/LaSalle Street Church
Date: Wednesday, December 03, 2014; 5:45-8:15 pm
This was the last instance of
Chicago Cares’ participation in this event.
However, I had asked if I could be involved as a regular volunteer and
Marianne had said that she would schedule me on the 1st Wednesday of
each month, and as far as I was concerned, nothing would be different. Marvin, a terrific Volunteer Leader, was
going to be leading this one and I arrived to see him there, along with the
usual ‘Moody Bible’ students and
Keith. There was no sign of Marianne and
I learnt that she had a root canal procedure and so would be missing this one.
 |
| The festive cookies |
There were boxes upon boxes of
cookies donated by a bakery and Keith wanted 10 cookies on each plate. Marvin and Hannah were doing that I joined
them. The cookies were special ones with
festive decorations, bright colors; shapes etc, and were looking fantastic. We piled on the cookies on the 18 plates and
put them on the trolley. We still had several
cookies left over and decided to put them out when the guests come over for
seconds. I moved to the salad station
and helped mix the dressing in. We then
estimated how much should be added to each of the 18 bowls and did a decent job
with the distribution. And then just as we
were about to take the trolley into the refrigerator, Keith came over with
carrots, melons and some additional dressing, meaning we had to remove
everything from the bowls and mix again!
We were done early and Keith gave
his speech, using the additional time to go into details on the origins of this
program, on how 11 years ago someone found a hungry and homeless man on the
front steps of the ‘LaSalle Street
Church’, and was moved to create this kitchen. After telling the new volunteers the usual
around how to welcome our guests, he turned over the proceedings to another
regular volunteer, Matt, who was playing Marianne’s role this evening. He told us about the way the evening would
proceed and then assigned duties; with me on serving.
Today’s menu was turkey chili with turkey present in 3 ways -
chunks, pulled and ground. Plus, there
was some chicken and rice. We also had
juice tonight, which was a mix of a few different juices, though not
Grapefruit, since Keith said that the guests disliked that. I was plating chili and since we had two
trays of it, was pouring generous servings on a bed of rice. Soon it was time for seconds and people had
started lining up. As decided earlier,
the extra boxes of cookies were kept for the guests to take. For once we had not put salad bowls on empty
tables and thus there was some salad available as well. People loved the cookies and were asking for
them, especially the ones with special designs. The chili was popular and many came back for it, but there were some who took the salad as well. One guy
asked if he could have more cookies and since our intention is always to give
away all of the food, we helped him fill 3 containers with them.
Once the line had dissipated, I went over to help with the
clean-up; wiping down the tables and stacking up the chairs. The music was on in the background and some
of the guests had joined in on the singing.
Once all was done, I wished Marvin and others goodbye. Marvin was here for the first time and he had
been impressed, so much so that he mentioned that he would come back. I told him to sign-up with Marianne, just as
I had. After almost two years with
Chicago Cares at this location, their association with this project was
done. I was just getting warmed up.
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