I went with some friends to serve lunch to the homeless today.
It looks like an easy job because all you have to do is dish up the food and smile.
But looks are deceiving. First, there were way, way more hungry people there than last time I volunteered. Several agencies that do this work have gone bankrupt, leaving these people with fewer options.
They line up outside. Women, children and handicapped first. The first man I saw looked a lot like Nick Nolte. For a second I wondered if it was Nick Nolte.
As I've shared with you before, the food is served for one hour - period. So we want to do it as fast as possible in order to feed everybody in line.
We failed today.
My assignment was to serve the salad. Easy, right? It was in a huge bin. I'd already decided that I could go faster if I filled the compartment in the paper plate with my plastic-gloved hand, and, because the guy knows me, I'd already had the big lecture about not putting too much on the plates.
But at the last minute, instead of salad dressing, the guy came along and poured about two gallons of guacamole dip into the salad and mixed it up. (This food is all donated so they just do the best they can.)
Guacamole dip is like glue. After losing a couple of gloves in the salad and having to stop and fish them out, I switched to tongs. My thumb is still sore from one solid hour of squeezing tongs.
The man standing next to me, the one handing me the plates, told me he volunteers there every day. I can understand why. It's such an honor to do this.
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