On December 15th, our group volunteered with the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen in NYC. The Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen serves over 1,200 nutritious meals every weekday (including the holidays) and they are the largest emergency feeding organization in New York City. Not only do they provide warm and healthy meals during the week, but they also have a program called “Food for the Soul.” This program provides soul and body nourishing activities for those who are in need. These activities include a writing workshop, yoga, meditation, music, discussion groups, computer classes and more. After we arrived at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen and had signed in, we received our job assignments. My assignment was to serve salad to the guests. After everyone had been assigned to a job, we all went to our workplaces. The soup kitchen’s serving system was very fast and efficient. Everyone lined up next to their job assignment and served food on trays which were passed down in assembly-line fashion. At the end of the long table, filled trays would be handed to guests. Not only was the serving system organized and productive, but there was a guest musician who played the violin throughout the whole entire food service. What struck me the most from this volunteer work was that the majority of the guests were men. There were very few women and children. I was also highly impressed by the healthy meals that we were serving. There was absolutely no processed food, all the bread was whole grain, and there was a nice balance between protein, fruits, veggies and even dairy. Our group hopes to volunteer with this soup again in the following month and we were inspired by the hard work that the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen does every single week day. Overall, I had a wonderful, interesting and unique experience volunteering with this soup kitchen.
