Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa provides a daily nutritional meal to the homeless, unemployed, working poor families, senior citizens, the unemployed, the mentally, and physically challenged and of course the children.
No one should go to bed hungry on the street or otherwise. However, providing meals seven days per week is no easy task. It takes some amazing and truly special people volunteering their time to make it happen. More than other volunteering opportunities I’ve experienced, Someone Cares had a strong communal vibe, I felt like I was walking into a family, a family on the eve of a huge holiday feast.
I walked up, found where I need to sign in, and looked around for some one to answer to. Not finding anyone right off, I walked around asking random people if they needed help, finally, I found someone who had use of me. I was quickly thrown into the mix, it seemed some one just donated crates upon crates of canned food that needed to be sorted into what could be used in recipes and what could simply be handed out.
After getting through a few hundred cans, a van showed up to drop off the first of many delivery donations from local restaurants and grocery stores. My job changed from sorter of cans to sorter of everything but cans. Along with a handful of other people, we sorted and set up everything from bread, fruit, salads, individual yogurt packages, and more on tables in preparation for the opening to the public at 1pm. Meanwhile, a half dozen of volunteers were hard at work preparing the hot meals in the kitchen.
My shift ended as the hungry began to file into the Soup Kitchen for their meals.
Website: someonecareskitchen.org
Orientation: No.
Commitment: 5hr. sorting food and helping in the kitchen.
Cost: $0
This entry is part of 2011’s Project 365 – Volunteering 12 places in 12 months.