What’s Good For Me

One benefit of having no child at home is I am available to answer the call for volunteers. Last week I worked the church community clothing sale. Today I volunteered to serve the Urban Ministries shelter meal. Having a chance to do things for other people is really the best thing for me to do to keep my mind off our empty house.
Serving the shelter meal is something I have done many times over many years so it is like riding a bike, something I could do with my eyes closed. Tonight we had a number of old hats and an equal number of virgins. After putting on my plastic gloves and downing my hairnet, it was up to me to instruct how to cut the lasagnas into 12 perfectly equal portions. This is when my quilting skills come in handy. The one skill I found the men lacked was that of using warn wrap.
After we had prepped all the food, but before the doors were open to let the crowd in we had to make up the late plates. Tonight there were 22 plates needed for the people staying at the shelter who had late jobs. We had to wrap the rolls and cookies in Saran separate from wrapping the plate of lasagna, salad and bananas. It became a Saran 101 class.
The doors opened right on time at 6:45 and I had Richard Myer and his wife Pru on my right manning the rolls and salad as I was scooping out lasagna with Bill Burig on my right. Pete McWilliams and Logan Toms handled bananas and cookies and Richard Watson and Brendon, the scout leader did drinks. We did a steady business of feeding about 300 people. 
As the line slowed down I went to a help mother with a three year old son and 18 month old daughter. I fed the little girl because this mother was clearly overwhelmed. I learned that her husband just disappears, she works full time and she doesn’t know what to do. It was heart breaking, but for a few minutes I gave her a chance to eat her meal. It wasn’t much, but it was all I had to offer.
Before I knew it the eight o’clock hour was upon us and it was time to close the serving line and go home. Serving the shelter meal takes away my appetite completely. I got home and could not think about having dinner. Maybe I should spend more time helping other people, if only I could find things that don’t involve a hairnet.