Abi: Journal 7

Day 7 (November 8):

Today we started to work on our projects for the presentation due on Friday. The main thing we did today was cook for guests at Cherry St. Mission. When we were driving down there, it was weird to see how the environment changed so fast; at one point there would be nice houses and streets, and within a time span of 5 minutes, there would be run-down houses with not allot of people. We got closer to the center, and there were allot of people scattered outside. I assumed they were waiting for the center to open for lunch. Most of them had friends and were just hanging out. Once we entered the kitchen, I immediately picked up a strong scent that smelled like a meat market. There were only 2 people there, and we then met the chef. He was a really nice person, and he gave us a quick tour around the kitchen and storage area. It was amazing to see how much donations were given to them. There were piles and piles of cans, pasta, oils, juices, and so much more in the back. In the kitchen, everything was 3 times the size of what I have in my kitchen; this includes the ovens, pressure cookers, stoves, sinks, and mixing bowls.


I got assigned to make a portion of the lunch today, which was the tossed salad. My supervisor's name was Al, and he was awesome. Al had a really good sense of humor and made everything fun. He taught us how to dice the tomatoes and we got the hang of it very quickly. He seemed like an expert, and it looked like he had been working there for a while. Once we (literally) tossed the salad, I helped out with the chili, which we soon found out was scorched, and had no seasoning! I was very surprised when the main supervisor tasted it, said it was horrible, and then told us to serve it anyways. That sort of irritated me. After about 2 hours of cooking, it was time to serve! I volunteered to serve because I really wanted to interact with people, unlike allot of the services we have done that didn't involve direct service. We made a line to get the food, and a man lead us where, what table, and who to serve it to. I liked how organized it was because it didn't make me feel uncomfortable at all. I found it interesting that some of the people who came, came so often that the workers knew them by name! The people there were generally nice, and I really appreciated that. It made me so happy when someone asked me what school I was from or asked how my day was. Overall, I will never forget this experience because it made me look at the community in a different way, and I actually felt like I helped someone's life today.

By: Abi Raj