Yesterday our group accompanied a teacher and her six sixth graders to St. John’s food pantry. We stayed there from about 12:30 until a little after 2:00. We volunteered with the women who handed out food, bagged cans and sorted groceries. My job was to take the tickets of single adults and senior citizens and give them a bag of cans, peanut butter, and cereal. We received wonderful praise and general compliments from people waiting in line. It was great to feel the difference we were making. We also received a tour of the facility from Sister Sarah. We saw the tables and graphs involving the donations, money used, and people served from St. John’s. We came to understand how the food is donated, stored and utilized by volunteers. It was a great opportunity to talk to Joe Spicket about ideas for final products that our group could make. It was very inspirational to see how an organization that started out so small could become such a well working business. Also, it was fantastic to be reassured that there were so many people who volunteered at not-for-profits. People who cared enough to spend their entire days handing out food to those less fortunate than themselves. I hope we will have the opportunity to do more volunteer work, both at soup kitchens, and at shelters in the future.
