D.C. Service Trip

For my service opportunity I choose to travel to Washington D.C. along with 20 other students to volunteer through the organization called YSOP. Staying in washington was a really interesting experience which opened my mind to the real statistics and challenges homeless people are faced with today. The service group I was paired with for the week consisted of Me, Melia, Gianna, Kara, Ruta and our chaperone Sarah.

Our first service position was at Martha's Table, an organization which is composed of three different programs all geared toward serving the community and helping the homeless. During the day our group worked for the program of Martha's Table called Mckenna's Wagon, this is a seven day a week mobile soup kitchen which makes and distributes meals for the homeless and brings them in a vehicle to the places the meals need to go. Due to the large number of people they feed(1200) we spent the day preparing and packaging food in order for it to be distributed. Although the work seemed tedious at first(Kara and I must have quartered at least 1,000 strawberries) it was clear that they appreciated all the help we were able to offer, they even made sure to thank us as well as let us know how much of a difference even the little things we did made for them.

Out of each service opportunity I had I must say that my last day at the organization Thrive D.C. was the most memorable because of how much I learned. The Managing Chef Kevin was extremely knowledgeable and prepared when it came to feeding the almost 200 men and women who attended the breakfast. He made use of all of our help by having us wash and clean dishes, prepare food for the next day, and serve the breakfast that morning. It amazed me how much work he did and how organized he was while working. The food he served was extremely well prepared and smelled great, he had many options which was important because not everyone likes the same thing. One of the tasks Ruta and I were assigned was to wash and thaw frozen fish and then once it was clean we had to soak it in eggs and then cover it in bread crumbs and put it on trays in preparation for the following day's meal. While the job was extremely smelly it really introduced me to the reality of preparing a meal for hundreds of people and also forced me to appreciate all the hard work volunteers like Kevin do to help others.

Overall the experience I had working with the homeless was great. I feel extremely lucky to have such an amazing life and family and after experiencing all that we did in Washington D.C. my life has changed for the better. I find myself having more compassion and understanding towards the homeless and I am eager to continue doing service this summer in Rhode Island.

-Mimi