I did my April volunteering this morning. I served breakfast at a homeless shelter - Central Iowa Shelter & Services. It was a good experience! The shift was from 6:15-7:30am, so I had to leave the house by around 5:45am this morning. I was so afraid that I would oversleep, but I made it! There are two volunteer spots for serving, and then someone who actually runs the kitchen.
I pulled up in front of the building this morning and realized that I had already been here years ago. How funny is that? No, I was not homeless. :) Freshman year at Simpson, we had to do a service project. My group went to a homeless shelter to help clean it up. I didn't realize it was the same one until I got there!
Anyways, like I said, there is a person that works from 4-8am there. She gets the kitchen ready, cooks the breakfast (eggs, tator tots, and sausage) and makes the coffee. The volunteers help set out the toast, milk, cereal and then actually serve the breakfast. It was easy, it went fast and was interesting like always! I always wonder what a person's life story is. I know that mental illness often plays a roll in homelessness. But there were others there - even my age, that you had to wonder how they got there. Did they not have any family to support them? Did they just move and have no job yet? Are they recovering from an addiction and trying to get back on their feet? Another life lesson - everyone has a "story", so don't be so quick to judge. People overall were friendly, not scary as I would have thought. I would definitely like to do this one again!!!
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