Location: Breaking Bread Ministries/LaSalle Street Church
Date: Wednesday, June 03, 2015; 5:45-8:15 pm
I was running late and arrived to see that we were short on volunteers
for the evening. Marianne kissed me on
the cheek and said that she had missed me. She also mentioned that her mom had passed
after a prolonged illness and she had the service this morning. As I expressed my condolences, Marianne said
that it was this project and the people associated with it that got her out of
the door. I washed up and Chef Dani told
me to get working on opening frozen biscuit like things and laying them on the
sheet pan, followed by buttering them and then putting the pans in the oven. It sounded easy enough.
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| Thankfully we did not have Spam for desserts! |
Well, it really wasn’t easy opening the packs and some
crumbled on contact. I was using a knife
to open them and chef said I needed to work on my “Kung-fu grip”. Hilarious,
but I wasn't in the mood. It had been a
tough day…week. One other guy came and said
something which I think was meant to be funny and when I didn’t react, said
that it was a joke. I continued to
ignore him. I made 3 trays and was using
the butter liberally. I mean, why
not! Besides this, there was spam on the
menu as well. I have never had the
stuff, but have heard people either swear by it or turn away in disgust. A polarizing food if there ever was one!
Next, Marianne asked me to help with the fruit and I started
chopping things which looked like canned pears. Hannah was there as well along with another
volunteer and I asked Hannah about her school and upcoming trip to El
Salvador. After the fruit had been
chopped, I put it into the 18 bowls, estimating how much would be required to
balance everything. While we were doing bowls for the table rather than individual servings, thankfully these bowls were
smaller. While I was doing this, sensing
that I was not in the greatest of moods, Marianne came over and hugged me
saying she was the mother of this place and knew when people were "off". She asked if I would much rather take the evening off and leave. “Where
else would I go”, I asked.
I went and looked outside and people had assembled. One of them asked if we were having spam and I
replied in the affirmative. Another
gentleman asked if we would have it with “pineapple
and wine reduction”! I said he was
going to have to wait for fine dining, since we were doing a more “casual theme” this evening.
I saw that the “spirit feeding”
session was going on, but the people conducting it were not the usual students,
who had gone home for the holidays. Marianne
then got everyone together and mentioned that the regulars like John, Hannah
and me would correct her if she missed anything. After her usual speech she assigned duties and
I was on serving. During our prayer, she
mentioned how she had lost her mom but this project kept her going.
We went out and I helped distribute the salads. Chef made a plate of one spam, some beans &
pork, potatoes and one half of the buttered biscuit. The potatoes smelled amazing and when I asked the
chef what was in them, she said butter, thyme and paprika. I was serving the said potatoes and also placing
the biscuit on the plate. At first I was conservative with the potatoes, till
chef said there were more trays and I could be more generous. We finished the first round of plating, and quickly moved to the seconds. This
time I was on spam, and there was plenty of it. I was dishing it out in heaps, especially when
one gentleman kept asking for more. After
a huge rush of seconds, we made takeout boxes and seeing that people were
almost done, I filled all leftover spam in one of the boxes, looking for the
gent who had loved the stuff.
I went and helped with stacking the chairs and the general cleanup.
It was heartening to see some of the guests helping, while others stayed and listened to the excellent music and
singing. Marianne is absolutely right when she says that everyone deserves
dignity, and we treat them accordingly over here. Soon I was ready to leave, after a day when I
wasn't really feeling my best. Marianne mentioned once again said that she was available to listen, should I need her. I expressed my condolences on her mother’s
passing again and promised that I would be back on the 17th for the “Summer Spectacular”. That day we would be
servers for a more “refined” dining
experience for our guests.
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