Location: Breaking Bread Ministries/LaSalle Street Church
Date: Wednesday, March 04, 2015; 5:45-8:30 pm
Marianne sent an email to me and some of the regulars like
John saying that she would not be able to make it tonight and so asked us to
lead the volunteers. She also included
some talking points that we should use with the newcomers. I arrived to see that John had already taken
charge and little Hannah was directing the incoming volunteers. Marianne or not, it looked like things were
under control. John was looking for
someone to do the fruits salad and I said that I would open the cans and was
joined by another volunteer. I was
opening the cans using the industrial opener, and quite efficiently at
that. We had peaches and pears and while
I would open the cans and drain the fluid, my fellow volunteer was then cutting
the fruits into bite sized pieces.
 |
| I would be holding the clipboard |
A new lady chef, Dani, has replaced Keith and whatever she
was making smelt awesome. She came
over and dropped off 3 cans of pasta sauce to be opened and this was going to
be the base of a sauce in some sort of Mexican themed dinner. We had several volunteers in attendance and
so John asked if I could be the “nurse’s
assistant”, a job that I never done before.
The nurse gave me instructions to send over 2 people over at a time and
I was to note down their full names as well as their date of birth. I took the clipboard and started walking
around the room asking if people wanted to see the nurse. One of the guests responded that maybe not a
nurse, but he would take a psychiatrist if we had one!
One gentleman said that he would come with me and after
dropping him off, I came back and repeated with a lady. Another gentleman approached me and I said
that I would fetch him soon. A woman
asked me if the nurse was giving out prescription and I said that I wasn’t sure
of that. When I asked for her birth date,
she wasn’t willing to do so initially, but when I said that unfortunately it
was required, she gave it to me reluctantly.
I walked about and saw that on the other side of the partition the ‘Moody Bible’ students were doing their “spirit feeding” session. In the kitchen John had started his speech
and was doing a great job. He told the
volunteers everything they needed to know, such as not giving the guests any
money and about everyone’s “comfort zone”. He then assigned duties and we ended with a prayer. While Jon was doing a very competent job, it
is strange not to have both, Keith and Marianne around for the first time since
I have been coming here.
I continued my duties and since no
one else had signed up with me, some folks said that I was not having any “customers” this evening. I replied saying that I guess it was
good. The food came out and it seemed
that we had something that looked like a “taco”. I stood on the side as John went over and
made the announcements, including that I would be taking down the names for the
nurse. The music was on with folks
playing the drums and piano. The
volunteers went out to serve the salads and once again, we had to leave the bowls
on tables even though no one was there. I
looked around and saw that one of the ‘Moody
Bible’ volunteers was having a conversation in “sign language” with a guest who is deaf. In fact, she spent the entire evening with
him. The dinner started and I stood on
one side looking at the room, remembering what Marianne has said a long time
ago. There are many reasons why people
come here and one of them is that some of them are lonely and would rather
share a warm meal with others. I thought
to myself that perhaps financial means aside, we are not too different, them
and I.
One gentleman came over and said
that he wanted to see the nurse and when I offered to keep his meal warm in the
oven, he said that he would rather eat first.
Knowing that in the past we have had instances where food in the oven
had been given away by mistake, I thought that it was a wise decision. As dinner came to a close, volunteers started
the clean-up while I finished up my duties, with one last person remaining to
see the nurse. As the guests left, the volunteers
had done a great job and everything was being put away. I took pictures of the various forms for
Marianne and left after thanking John for his leadership. Marianne sent an email to all the volunteers
thanking us. She also sent a separate
one to me saying that I was a “blessing
to her and there were never enough ways to thank me”. I said that I could have done with her
comforting shoulder tonight but there will be another month. There’s always another month.
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