food = respect

Today I woke up at 4:30am to head over to Pine Street Inn to serve breakfast. I woke up dizzy and confused after having a hard time falling asleep last night. I might have had about 4 hours of sleep. Plus there were lightning and thunderstorms that kept jolting me out of the early lull of sleep. But I don't want to complain... I actually had a good time today.

I got to Pine Street just before 6am to be greeted by a husky bald man, the other volunteer, working breakfast. I guess usually if there are no volunteers, the kitchen assistants, two dimure asian ladies who are very difficult to understand serve breakfast. The guy who was volunteering told me that the men getting breakfast boss these women around. I know it may be hard to understand them, but no one deserves to be yelled at... that goes for the interaction between the meal service volunteers and the men being served. It's hard, at 6am, no one is really a "morning person." It's early and it is your only chance to eat, possibly until dinner. Serving breakfast was a different experience than dinner. Plus it was the first time I worked the line.

I think that people deserve choices, but when there are so many people to give meals to that the line is out the door, it is hard to be gentle with someone who doesn't want this, wants that, wants to trade, swap or substitute. For instance there was a gentleman who was eyeing all the different donuts that we were to include on the tray. We had some chocolate frosted, some regular glazed, some raspberry filled sticks, some coconut covered donut holes. We were backed up. This guy some how walked over to the end of the line without picking up a tray. He's trying to ask me for something and I have a bunch of guys in front of me waiting for a tray. I'm not exactly sure what he said, it is a bit of a blur, but probably asking about a particular item he wants, then the volunteer guy says, "What does he want?" And I said, "He wants it all." But meaning that I assume he wants a full try of food, the man overhears this and he was pissed, "What did you say? You think I want it all?" and just looks me over with a cold cold eye and does the "wapishaw" sound, like whatever, and walks away. I didn't mean to disrespect the guy, I actually wanted to make sure that he had as much food as everyone else, but I was too busy to explain and I think he was too proud to listen. Food is a delicate balance. Different choices can create a perception of being favored or not, being disrespected or not. You want to treat these men especially like they matter. Maybe they are down on hard times, maybe a little bad luck, maybe switching a chocolate covered donut instead of a "that's what's up there, just take the tray" will start their day off better. Put them in a positive mind set. All the same, this is a meal service, not a restaurant.

Speaking of which, I'm reading a book my Ruth Reichl - Garlic and Sapphires. The beginning of the book is about her review of Le Cirque. My point is... even powerful critics (in disguise) can pay hundreds for a meal and still get disrespected. This perception via food choices/quality happens in high end restaurants and in soup kitchens.

I stayed to help sweep the floor again and asked if there was anything I could help with after that. I hardly understood anything the little asian lady said except to follow her and "sandwiches." I was brought to a lovely woman named Maria who I worked with to make probably close to 300 sandwiches. She showed me what to do, told me how many to make, delivered ingredients and supplies and I was happy to help her out. Two slices of white american cheese and two slices of deli chicken on a whole wheat (thank god!) roll; wrap in plastic wrap and right before the second wrap around, place one mayo and one mustard packet under the wrap. I tried to make the next one better than the last, or at least be more efficient in making and wrapping. I made sandwiches for about 3 hours straight - worked til 10:30am or so. Probably will go back next Wednesday. But I'm taking 2 tylenol PMs at about 7:30pm on Tuesday night so I get more than 4 hours of sleep!