One of my life’s motto’s that I live by is “ Only a life lived in the serve to others is worth living”. (Eistein, n.d.) One of my most memorable volunteer experiences was the time I was able to serve breakfast at the local homeless shelter on Christmas morning. This experience was joyous in more ways than one, because I realized that the shelter has an extreme growing need of volunteers, and during the holiday time there is not as much help as other times. Some reasons may include the usual volunteers travel, or spend that time at home with their families.
On this particular day, I had to wake pretty early because the shelter serves breakfast at 5:15am-7:15 am every morning. Once arrived I was greeted by a member of the shelter staff, whom showed me around the kitchen and assisted me in finding all the materials needed. At this location volunteers are able to bring in food to cook with which I understand lessens the use of materials on site for other meals throughout the day and or week or use of donated food/materials from local restaurants, supermarkets and community donations.
On this particular day we were informed that we should prepare for 70-80 guest. It is required by the staff that shelter guest shower and get dressed before coming into the dinning room to eat. We prepared a menu of Bacon, Eggs, Grits, and Pancakes with the drink choice of coffee and tea. We were made aware that we had families with children, and their pancakes were made in the shape mickey mouse.
It took assigning tasks, maintaining certain posts, music and lots of laughs to make the morning progress. I remember when the window opened up and seeing all the faces prepared to eat, hustling and bustling to make sure everyone was satisfied and hearing many expressions of thanks with words of gratitude. I remember taking a second to take in what was happening. Here I was thinking I was simply there to provide a meal and walked away with so much appreciation to community resources for providing opportunities for the public to engage, assists, and be informed of the needs.
Once the food was served I was able to walk around the dinning hall, meet and greet some of the residents and hear some stories of how they’d been saying at the shelter for quiet some time, or the story a mother of three that express what it was like to be with her children and have some place warm to wake up too instead of being outside.
It surprised me at the willingness of the guest to openly share their journeys with us and maybe to them it was a opportunities to have someone to listen without judgement and offer positive vibes.
This experience sparked interests in me to volunteer there after this event, I was able to share my experience with others who inquired how could they get involved through pictures from the morning and since I have donated my time, and clothing to help some of the people at the shelter. When my family came to town to visit me months later I took them to the shelter where we bonded over creating a meal together and aiding in making someone else’s day through providing an experience of music, smiling faces, and overall positive engagement for others.
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