It is clear right from the start that Breaking Bread is trying to be more than a simple soup kitchen. For one thing, the patrons they serve are invited inside more than an hour before the food is served. The intention here is to give the guests a chance to sit and socialize with each other, and to take advantages of some of the other services they offer. These services include consultations with a nurse in a private area, "spiritual feeding" with students from the Moody Bible Institute, a room where they can get free items of clothing, rapid HIV testing services, and live music. No where else Jen and I have been has been able to offer such a comprehensive approach to serving all of the needs of their guests. The down side is that with an annual budget of only $37,000, they are only able to offer these services once per week, on Wednesday nights. There was great excitement when we were there because a new commercial-grade can opener had arrived, one that had been needed for a very long time. They had just received a grant of $950 that let them afford this fairly vital piece of equipment. At the places we work, I often think about how much more they could do if their budget was doubled, but here I wished for multiplying it by ten. They would put it to very good use.
Jen and I arrived at about 6pm and found a very full kitchen bustling with volunteers. Everyone was working on food prep - putting salads into bowls, dishing out jelly for every table, and cooking eggs, grits, sausages and toast. It was a little chaotic, and seemed a little dis-organized, but we soon realized that we had just walked in at the height of the busiest part of the night. We were assigned the task of setting cupcakes onto plates that would be handed out for dessert, which we did until they called everyone together at about 6:30. At that time, Keith, the kitchen supervisor and Marianne, the volunteer supervisor gave us the run down of what Breaking Bread tries to do, and how the evening would go. It was clear from listening to them that they were both very committed to the mission of Breaking Bread, and that they had seen a lot of interesting things over the years. Both have been working with the organization for its whole existence.
Once all the food was made and all the guests were seated, announcements were made and we started to serve. Jen and I volunteered to plate the food, which is done at a bank of steam tables off the dining room. From there it is loaded on to food service carts which are taken around by more volunteers. They take great care to serve one table at a time, because guests have been known to receive a plate, hide it, and ask for more. Things get very fast paced in this part of the night, because once the food starts coming, everyone wants it. After everyone has been fed, they make an announcement for seconds, and anyone who wants to can come up for more, if there is any left. The guests can also take a container to go, if they choose. As this wraps up, people start to leave, and the volunteers start to clean up. In contrast to the food prep part of the night, the clean up went like clockwork owing to a well defined system. In a matter of about half an hour, the dishes are all done, the tables are cleared and put away, and the chairs are all stacked. We finished about 8:30pm.
At the end of the night, we had served about 150 meals, which sounded like it was about average. The crowd had seemed light just before we started serving, but there were a lot of late comers. One of the guests serenaded our clean up work by playing the piano (very well) and singing. He even did a version of Freebird.
One part of the Breaking Bread experience that we did not really participate in was real engagement with the guests. The staff encourages the volunteers to sit and chat with the guests and spend some time helping them feel like real people instead of the non-persons that our society makes of the homeless. Since it was our first time, we chose to hang back from this part of the experience. I think it is safe to say that our experience was less rich as a result, and now that we have gotten our bearings, I think we will make more of an effort to connect with the patrons next time.
All in all, it was a great night. We met some really friendly people, had a lot of fun and got to see the results of our work on the smiling faces of the guests. We will certainly come back, although we will have to plan ahead. Since they only serve once per week, the volunteer slots fill up fast. We booked this work a few months ago, and the next opportunity will not be for a few months from now. If you think you might be interested, it is worth booking time as soon as you can.
I did get a chance to shoot a few pics of the driving forces behind this kitchen. This is Keith and Marianne, respectively, both shown in the kitchen area at Breaking Bread:
If you want more information about this organization and how you can help, go to:
Breaking Bread
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