From that point on, all of the credit for accomplishing this goes to Jen. I might have been a cheerleader on the side lines, but she was the driving force. Being Jen, there would be no boxed brownie mix in this project. She dug out her recipe, figured out how much she could get out of it and decided that 11 batches of brownies would do the trick. We went to the store and got supplies - 10 lbs. of flour, 2 dozen eggs, etc. We also got a bunch of those disposable aluminum pans, since we did not have nearly enough at home. When it came time to bake, she started by putting all the dry ingredients into eleven little ziploc bags, so that as she made batch after batch, she only had to measure eggs and liquids. I tried to help out at this point, but my offer was rejected. She had her groove on and did not want me to screw it up. It took three days of baking around her work schedule, but on the night before we were set to go to the shelter, there were eleven pans of brownies cooled or cooling on our dining room table. At this point, I was able to help a little by cutting up the brownies, but Jen packed them all, making sure each one was dutifully sprinkled with powdered sugar. It was really inspiring to watch her crank out all of them, because I could tell that every step of the way, she was seeing the people who would get a little lift out of being given a brownie. It reminded me of why I love her.
At the end of all that, this is what went with us to the shelter:
When we went to the shelter for the first time, there were more volunteers than work, and we spent a lot of time just taking in the whole process. This time, Jen and I and one other perennial volunteer, Tony, were the only ones there in the kitchen, so we a little more to do. Tony had the soup all dished out, so we spent our time putting the brownies into bowls and setting them out to serve. In the time while we waited for the patrons to start arriving, Tony told us about himself. He is an employee for Mikasa, the large company that makes dinnerware, and has been for many years. The company had left Chicago, except for one small warehouse, which he still oversees. This warehouse is responsible for sending replacements of certain Mikasa patterns, but Tony does not need to work very much. Because he has lots of time, he cooks almost every day at the shelter, and is now known to almost all the patrons of the shelter, and even the people in the neighborhood. He told us a couple of disturbing stories of shelter patrons getting beaten up by the gangs in the neighborhood for fun, or to rob them. He also said that the leader of the gang has told them to leave him alone because of the work he does for the shelter. Apparently, the area around the shelter is following the trend seen throughout Chicago of experiencing more and more youth violence. (Chicago is averaging about 10 gun deaths per week this year, many of them teens or children.) In spite of that, Tony is worried that Mikasa will decide to move him away from Chicago and that he will have to stop working at the shelter. He is not worried about the violence; he is worried about having to stop helping these people. We like Tony a lot.
The first round of serving, to the women, was pretty sedate. As with last time, there was not a capacity crowd. In fact, we only served about 15 women. In a great act of humility, Jen handed out the sandwiches while leaving me to give out the brownies. Tony handed out the soup. Because of the small turnout, I was able to get a few smiles by giving out a couple extra brownies. One woman, a regular, but also full of spirit and mischief, hung around to the very end, telling me she was going to get me to give her another one. I played her game with her for a little while, telling her we needed to make sure everyone got one, and then, of course, gave in at the end.
The men came in the same as last time too, like a wave. I was surprised at first, because many of them did not want a brownie. I started being a little more liberal with them, although with so many patrons, it was almost impossible to tell who had already gotten one and who had not. Once the word got around about how good they were, I got a lot more requests, and I was amused to hear all of the excuses: "I dropped mine on the floor.", "I didn't see this the first time around..." and so on. As it turned out, we had plenty of brownies, and some guys got a lot of them. Some guys even took some into the dorm for a late night snack. Of course, whenever I got a compliment on the brownies, I sent them back down the line to tell Jen. She got a lot of compliments.
Overall, it was a great night. We enjoyed having more to do, and we got a lot of warm smiles, friendly thank you's. We were reminded again that while these people are struggling, they are no less deserving of honest human interaction than anyone else. We left feeling happy and fulfilled, and looking forward to our next visit.
For more information on the shelter go to:
Franciscan House of Mary and Joseph
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