On Wednesday, December 9th, 2015, our group visited Saint John’s Bread and Life Soup Kitchen in Brooklyn, NYC. When we arrived, we met with the volunteer coordinator, Jennifer Stephen. Unfortunately, they didn’t need our volunteer services that day because they weren’t very busy, but instead, Jennifer took us on a tour of their facility. The soup kitchen and pantry was extremely clean, modern and organized. I learned that their soup kitchen has an efficient electronic pantry service that allows customers to order canned and boxed goods through touchscreen tablets. I thought that this system was extremely interesting and creative because it allowed people to electronically choose what foods that they wanted, instead of receiving pre-packaged bags. She also showed us their food pantry where other volunteers were packaging customized bags of food that had been ordered from the electronic system. Ms. Stephen also showed us their soup kitchen, where volunteers were cutting, preparing and cooking hot meals. We also learned that every day, Saint John’s Soup Kitchen has a different breakfast and lunch menu, which can sometimes effect the amount of people who come and eat. Saint John’s Bread and Life Soup Kitchen has a large community of people who come and eat/order food at their soup kitchen and food pantry every day, but the amount of customers that they have is extremely unpredictable. In the future, we are planning on actually volunteering (doing hands on work) with Saint John’s Bread and Life Soup Kitchen so that we can interact with those who are impacted by hunger and help make a difference.
