1.  I think that my teach-in went really well because it was extremely fluid and controlled.  We knew exactly what we were going to do so it went by extremely well.  The kids got inspired by our passion and became extremely vocal about how when they were going to go home, they would do some work on Freerice.com.  That really made me feel that I had made a difference and that these kids had been impacted so much that they wanted to contribute outside of school.

2.  I thought that it was a pretty interesting experience to be a “teacher” for two hours.  It made me consider how much work needs to be done for each lesson that is prepared for us.  It was not my first time in a role with authority, as I worked as a counselor, but this was different since I was actually teaching.  My team had great teamwork, so each time that there was an issue, someone was sure to take the initiative to solve it or hurdle it.

3.  In my workshop, the only thing that I wanted to change was our reflection period.  Many people got distracted, both kids and us and the quality of the workshop went down significantly.  Therefore, I feel that if I was in charge, I would seriously rethink the entire reflection period and consider abolishing it.  Kids have learnt all about the topic and become bored if it is streched out too long.

4.  I really wanted to let all of my participants know that even though our world might seem food-secure, more than one sixth of the world, more than one billion people, are not sure of where their next meal will come from.  i think that many of my students did leave with the understanding that change is necessary.

5.  I thought that my set up group was great because I learned how to play the xylophone and I expanded my comfort zone.  I have never really been into music, so this was a great way for me to grow.  Also, I thought our song was pretty good.  I really thought that the assemblies acknowledged everything that needed to be said and they were put together well.

6.  I think that the preparation for the teach-in was just enough so that we knew what we were doing, but not so much that we felt overwhelmed and bored.  I think that next year, the students should be told more about what the actual day will be like as that was confusing.  Also, too many things were changed right before the teach-in to a point of real confusion, so that should not happen next year.

For my fifth and final visit, I once again visited HUC.  Before I went, I was very excited but a little sad because I knew that it was my last visit.  Once I was there, Ruby and I helped do the same things that we usually do, put the salad onto the plates, put the rest of the food onto the plates, put the plates onto the tables and serve the people.  This time, I also helped bring around the sandwich tray.  However, on this day, we weren’t serving sandwiches, we were serving leftover food and chicken.  I happened to notice a few things over the time that I volunteered at HUC.  I saw that about 90% of the people who visited were men, and I never saw one child even though I was told that they visit occasionally.  About three quarters of the people who visited were black, and the rest were either hispanic or caucasian.  There were very few Asians.  All in all I loved working here and I will probably visit on Mondays, even though I have finished my requirement.  If you have nothing to do on a Monday afternoon, I really believe that you should take some time to help out others.

For my fourth visit I returned to HUC with Ruby.  This visit was not very different from the other visits as we did practically the same thing.  We arrived a little later than usual and began to take food out to the main dining room.  It had been a month since we had visited, so the people there missed us.  I felt that while this visit was rather average compared to all of the other visits, we still accomplished many of our goals and I left with a great feeling of having felt someone in need.  One of the things that I did for the first time on this visit was that I pushed around a cart with soups and sandwiches on it and got to hand them out to the people at the tables.  They were extremely civilized and it was a great job to do and I hope that I will be able to do it again.  I really enjoy visiting HUC and I think that I will continue once we have finished our required five visits.

For my third visit, I visited HUC again.  However, this time was very different than the time I had gone before.  A large group of kids from Long Island came to visit and help out, and for the first time, I sat in on the meeting.  I learned that the organization was founded more than twenty years ago and the soup kitchen had never been advertised one.  Therefore, all of the people that come to eat there have found out from word of mouth.  Today, while I did help out with food, I focused on giving out clothing.  They have a small area called the clothing closet in which they give out underwear, socks, hats, gloves, socks and toiletries.  It was very different from serving food because it was easier to make eye contact and talk to the people.  While it was a very positive experience, I did encounter a few problem people who made inappropriate comments which are too vulgar to be posted here.  However, I still enjoyed the process, and I hope to return again.

For my second post, I visited The Hebrew Union College, or HUC for short.  Every Monday, from 3 to 6.  While it is at a Jewish college for Rabbis, it isn’t religious at all.  The very first thing that I did was to help out in the kitchen, peeling lettuce and plopping jelly and peanut butter on the plate.  Then, I started to have a little break where I played on my phone.  At about five to five, I started to help setting up plates and serving people.  More than one hundred people came to get a hot meal.  Some of the people were a little crazy, but a few of the others were really nice and interesting.  We served franks, beans, collard greens, carrots and peas.  We also gave out juice, milk, cookies and chocolate muffins.  I really enjoyed it because unlike my first visit, I actually had something to do for almost the entire time.  I really had a lot of fun.  My aim for next time is to help out more and make myself even more useful.

On Saturday, my group took our first visit to The Village Temple.  The Village Temple is a community soup kitchen that helps serve food to people that are homeless or very poor.  It was very interesting as we got to see how much work is put into a soup Kitchen.  When we go to St. Johns, we would only pack bags.  Here, we learned about the community and we got to participate in many different tasks.  I cut bread, made sandwiches, packed sandwiches and unpacked more bread.  Bread was in abundance.  Also, the people were really nice and helped us out a lot.  One other plus was that there were many kids from schools, so we got to talk to them.  I really had fun, and I can’t wait to go next week.