A Last Minute Meal

Sierra making sandwiches for today's meal volunteers whenever she is on a break from school. She is a joy to work alongside and has been volunteering since she was in grade school. I wish she could help every week.

Due to it being New Year's Eve, there wasn't a Wednesday Community Meal scheduled for today. But hunger doesn't go away just because it's a holiday and a small group of us volunteers were able and willing to serve,  so we did.

It's been a bitter cold week in Portland and we knew hot food and a warm and comfortable place to eat it would be much appreciated. Usually we serve a wider range of guests, including the elderly, the working poor and the homeless. Today we served primarily the homeless since they were the ones outside who saw the sign we put out advertising our last minute meal.

With a small group of volunteers, we had to keep our meal simple so we served hot soup donated by Phil's Uptown Meat Market and Good Samaritan Hospital and turkey and cheese sandwiches. The lean turkey that we used for the sandwiches was donated by the Trader Joe's on NW Glisan. We made 290 sandwiches and every single one was gone by 1 p.m. when we ended our two hour service — Proof that serving today was the right thing to do.

In additon to the meal, we handed out bags of canned food and handmade scarves knitted by the mother of regular volunteer Nancy.