On Monday, December 16th, we volunteered at Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm. Holy Apostle is a church that serves dinner and lunch everyday to people who need it. We went to serve lunch and learn as much about the people who go to the soup kitchen as we could. We arrived early, and signed in amongst all of the other volunteers. Then, we got out paper hats, aprons and gloves, and were assigned to our jobs. Mei, Brandon and I were each assigned to a table that we then were responsible for. We had to wipe it clean, and replace the salt, pepper, milk and sugar. The job itself wasn’t difficult, but it was more being around the people that was harder. As much as I don’t want to enforce the stereotype that all people who are homeless are crazy, at least a third of the people there were. I wasn’t sure how to carry myself. Because, as much as I see that they were all people like me, many times I feared that I looked condescending. As a young girl, I may have made people self conscious as I was cleaning up after them and having to help them. I felt like that’s what I was doing just by doing my job, but I don’t know if that is how it came across to the other people.

A few times older men approached me with odd comments and made me feel uncomfortable and my immediate thought was “it’s because they’re homeless”. Before then, I hadn’t realized that there is such a clear stereotype that all homeless men are crazy or criminals. While there is no denying that there are some who are, but there are crazy people anywhere you go. After one man made me feel much more threatened, I joined Brandon at his table for a little while. During this time, I watched my table from afar, and helped Brandon with taking care of his four tables. When I walked back to my table, a woman who was sitting on her own called to me and I began to talk to her. She was immediately very sweet, and I realized then how even though you may not believe in a stereotype, it still impacts the decisions you make. This is why people make a wide loop when they have to walk by a homeless person. They just immediately assume that some harm will come their way if they walk too close to someone who has been living on the street.