8th Graders Serve at the Soup Kitchen

We are all called to serve the needs of others. Here are some more reflections from my 8th graders who recently served at the Cathedral Soup Kitchen.

My experience at the soup kitchen was eye opening. When I first walked in the entrance, I saw two men laying on the floor sleeping. Next I went into the kitchen and put on an apron. Soon after that I started serving the food. One of my jobs was to pour drinks for the thirsty. Not many people said thank you, but when they did I felt good inside. We served a lot of people, I'm guessing nearly 100 or so. I noticed many different personalities. It was a great learning experience for me. I would gladly go back again.

(Annie W.)

My trip to the soup kitchen was fun. I got the chance to help people in a bad situation. The most enjoyable person I met was Allen. He had a disease where he couldn't stop talking. He talked to me about the facts of butter. He was very nice. He even stopped to pray. I think he said everything he thought. He always said, "You gotta believe me!" I think he should be an advertiser because I found him to be so interesting. Allen made my day...I hope I made his!

(Noah S.)

Going to the soup kitchen really opened my eyes to a lot of things in this world. A few of those things are that I really never knew who was homeless or who was not. The homeless people are not degenerates or people with impaired language. They are people like you and me who try to find work somewhere. They are reasonable people. The thing that made them homeless is luck. It was my luck that I got to serve the homeless instead of being homeless. When I was at the soup kitchen some things I did to help out included serving drinks. It was a hard job to do because most of the people took 2 or more glasses. So my partner and I had to pour quickly to keep up with the drink demand. After about 15 minutes of serving drinks I had the opportunity to help another man dry dishes. We talked for a little while as we washed and dried the dishes. Mrs. Buckley told me that the pantry needed to be swept. Annie, Noah and I went to go sweep. I noticed that the pantry had an organ inside. I asked, "Can I play the organ?" In response to my question Mrs. Buckley said, "Yes." I started playing and soon realized that I didn't have nearly enough octaves. So I played what I could. After we finished putting away the leftovers we left the soup kitchen knowing we did the will of God!

(Peter O)