Feeding the homeless for Thanksgiving
It’s four o’clock in the morning. My cell phone starts singing “Meant to Live” and I open my eyes groggily. I wonder, “What the heck am I doing up so early?“ and then I remember that I’m going to feed the homeless and low-income people today. I get dressed (I accidentally put on my shirt backwards), and went to wake up my mom (who greets me with a horrible glare).
Fast forward thirty minutes and I’m inside of the church dining hall, preparing for the hordes of homeless. I carefully set up each table and make sure that everyone has a mug and two cups—one 
for juice, the other for milk. My friends start to come into the church as well, all wanting to help their community. After each table has been set up, my friend and I go to put cookies into little baggies for the people to take on their way out. Next to the door, a lady sits behind a desk, offering help fliers to the homeless and also showing them a list of job openings.
Even at five in the morning, all my friends and I are still upbeat and active (mainly because of the Starbucks coffee I had). On the bright side, we didn’t have to wear hairnets like I thought we were going to have to do. Finally, everything was in place, and all we had to do was wait for the people to come filing in. A few minutes past seven, the people started trickling in, one by one. All 
of the volunteers rushed towards the man, offering him oatmeal, butter or strawberry jam on his toast, and eggs. Then, more people started to come in. Soon, the whole hall was packed and all of us were running back and forth in order to serve all of them. Our goal was to make the experience as personal as possible, so we all conversed with the people, trying to make them feel welcome. Unlike most homeless shelters, we didn’t have a buffet; we asked them what they wanted to eat, and went to go fetch it for them. To me, this helps maintain their dignity as it’s more like how an actual restaurant functions.
Three hours later; I’m tired and sick of doing this. I lose my smile and my eyelids start to droop from sleep-deprivation. Just about as I’m going to leave early and go home, a lady asks me if she can have more oatmeal. She tells me how much she appreciates my being there and then nothing else seems to matter. In some minuscule way, I’m helping my community, and people actually appreciate it.
Okay, now I’m rambling. The main point of this blog is to remind everyone that we should all give back to our communities for Thanksgiving. There are so many people on the streets, in the cold this Thanksgiving, and the least we can do is to provide them with a warm meal. When people ask me, “Why would you wake up so early to feed the homeless?“ I just give them a blank stare because it’s something that you should do, no matter what time you have to wake up. Everybody needs compassion in their lives and if you’re at home with your family, all huddled around a fireplace and munching on turkey limbs, think of all the people who don’t get that opportunity.
So, this Thanksgiving break, I encourage you all to find a homeless shelter or soup kitchen and volunteer there—it’s the least we can do. 
This entry was posted on November 24, 2008 at 06:18 PM and is filed under Personal,friends,.
By Kaylee · on November 25, 2008
You’re too late; Canadian Thanksgiving is in October! Just kidding. There are always a lot of opportunities to serve the community all the time :)
It’s nice to hear about a teenager who wakes up early to help out with an event like that.
By Allee · on November 25, 2008
Volunteering at your local food bank or soup kitchen is always a great way of giving back to your community. It’s something I try to do every couple of weeks, and I’m glad that you were able to experience that :). I hope that you and your group will go back and volunteer to help outside of the holidays, though, as the need doesn’t go away after special days like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Cheers :).
By Someone · on November 25, 2008
Alex…. alex.
-facepalm-