Location: Breaking Bread Ministries/LaSalle Street Church
Date: Wednesday, January 07, 2015; 5:45-8:30 pm
Chicago Cares had pulled out at
the end of the year but I wanted to continue my association with this place…the
people. I had asked Marianne to schedule
me for first Wednesday of every month and she had done so. It was bitter cold as I walked to the site,
trying not to slip on the sidewalks. I
arrived to find Marianne was there along with some of the usual suspects. As I put on my name-tag, Keith looked at it
and said my name correctly. It had taken the end of association with Chicago Cares for him to finally get it right!
 |
| Mmm 'Garlic Bread' |
The first task was to work with a
couple of new volunteers in putting garlic butter on bread. Keith showed us how to use the microwave to
melt butter and then we added garlic powder in it…a lot of garlic powder. One volunteer used a brush to spread it on
bread and then I put them on trays, which would be toasted in the oven just
before service. We moved the salad and
fruit into the fridge and freezer and I mentioned to one of the volunteers that
it was colder outside on the streets than in the freezer. Keith then did his usual speech, calling on
little Hannah to finish some of his sentences.
I find it amusing that he always picks someone to stare at and then does
not break eye contact. Then Marianne
allocated duties and as has been my role recently, I chose to plate. Following this, the Director of ‘Breaking Bread’, who was in attendance
today, led us in prayer.
Marianne said that one of our
guests had passed and there was going to be a short memorial service for him
prior to us commencing. She then asked
Keith if this guest's “street wife”
was in attendance this evening and Keith said no, because she herself was in a
hospital with 6 months to live. All of
this was due to substance abuse. We went
outside for the memorial service and Marianne spoke about this guest and then
read a verse. Then the Director led the
entire dining room in prayer and Marianne asked if anyone wanted to say a few
words, at which a guest got up and spoke.
This concluded with an applause from everyone and now it was time to
serve.
The menu for this evening was ‘Pasta and Meat Sauce with Sausages’ and
toasted ‘Garlic Bread’, which I was
serving. We had low attendance today,
though with it being so cold, I would have expected many to show up for a hot
meal. After the first round of serving,
the volunteers had their meal and then it was time for seconds. Everyone must have really enjoyed their
dinner since the entire room seemed to have lined up. I was now handling multiple things with
pasta, sausages and bread, though we ran out of sausages quickly. We did have a lot of pasta though and I could
be generous with that. The singing was
on in full flow, with one guest doing a rousing rendition of “Lean on Me”.
Marianne had kept 3 plates
in the warmer for people who were with the nurse. While 2 of them came back for their plates,
the 3rd plate was still in the oven.
I went over to help with the cleaning and stacking of chairs when I
heard a commotion. The person with the
nurse had come back to find that his dinner in the oven had been given
away. He started blaming everyone and
Marianne said that it was her fault.
Everyone felt terrible about this situation, since he was now going to go
hungry as all of the food had been given away. Earlier though, the guy who had spoken during
the memorial service had taken a “To-Go”
container, which he had said, was for any homeless person that he could find on
the street. I saw that he was still here
and I went over and asked if he could spare that box for the other guest. He
was more than ready to share and after thanking him, I took the container over
to the guest who was still fuming. I
knew that it wasn’t him but the circumstance…it always is. Hunger can turn people into something that
they may not be, but at least for this evening he would not go hungry.
The clean-up was progressing well
and everything was in control. The music
group was now performing “What’s Going On”
and as much as I would have loved to have stayed, it was time to leave. Wilson had been texting me to ask Marianne
when she wanted volunteers to come for her ‘Valentine’s
Day’ party on February 13th.
She asked me to tell Wilson that she would appreciate if the volunteers
could get some desserts and Wilson promptly put this up on the ‘Meetup’ saying that we needed “bakers”. I said that we could always buy cookies,
though Wilson would not hear of it. I
told Marianne that I would be back next month as well as for the ‘Valentine’s Day’ evening. While all of us had done our part, the true hero this evening had been the man who had helped so that another would not go hungry.
"And everywhere life is full of heroism"
No comments:
Post a Comment