rubyg-1/23/10-Village Temple-1st.visit

Village Temple has a soup kitchen: You are welcome to join us on any Saturday morning – you don’t need a reservation – just show up!  When we arrived at the building, we had to wait a couple minutes downstairs. I wasn’t exactly sure what we were going to be doing but I was excited to help. Once it was time, we went upstairs. It wasn’t how I pictured it. I didn’t think there were going to be many other volunteers but the room shortly was packed with many people.

There were many other volunteers there from different high schools in New York. This made the work for us less so at some points we ended up sitting down, trying to get out of the way. But we still were needed. In the room, there were several “heads” of the temple. I overheard two of them talking about how it usually is much more organized with less volunteers, so today it would be chaotic. The morning first consisted of making tuna sandwiches. The very first thing we did was sorted the sliced bread that was scattered on a huge table. Next, Taliana and I opened tuna cans and drained out the liquid. One of the old women called us the “tuna ladies”. Once we drained the tuna, we waited for some of the other volunteers to get back from Trader Joe’s. Then it was time to make sandwiches.   

We also bagged the sandwiches, washed apples, and set up the tables. Over all, I thought the first day was good but I wish there were less people. If there were less volunteers, we would have more work to do.  My goal for next visit is to be more helpful.