Volunteer Report: Positive Community Kitchen

My “day of volunteering” this month quickly became my “month of volunteering” with the Positive Community Kitchen.

I stumbled across this gem of an organization randomly and by happenstance as is the case for many of my missions.  It was a busy Tuesday morning last school year, deep into the 3rd trimester, and I was gleefully making my 30 minute lunch break getaway from the building. (lunch break-sadly, something that doesn’t happen consistently enough in my opinion.  Hence the gleefulness.) Anyway, as I was walking past the front of the building to go on my lunch break mile walk around the campus, I crossed paths with one of our health teachers who was in full on field trip mode.  Man, have I been there before. Clipboard in hand.  Eyes darting.  Doing the head count thing.  Answering student questions.  So I tossed my question in there as well,

“Hey Ann!  Where ya’ll off to?”  I inquired, while popping in my ear buds for some walking music.

Ann’s eyes quickly darted to me, before darting quickly back to shepherding her flock.  Pro teacher mode, multitasking like a boss.  “Oh hey there Carley!   No, Charlotte, you need to leave your backpack here at the school-remember, there isn’t room at the kitchen for your stuff.  Hurry!  We’ll wait for you here.  Damien!  Where’s your signed permission slip?”  Charlotte bounded off the bus, while Damien emerged to the front and began unwrinkling a wadded piece of paper that I assumed was said permission slip to hand over to Ann.  “Hey, Carley…yeah, we’re off to the Positive Community Kitchen!  We go every Tuesday as a class to volunteer/help out.  The kids love it!  We could always use an extra chaperone if you ever have some time. ” Then turning to face her class, full teacher mode voice, “OKAY KIDDOS!  WE’RE OFF!” Loud diesel bus engine roars to life.  “REMEMBER WHEN WE GET THERE, NO FOOD OR DRINK IN THE KITCHEN, WASH OUR HANDS AND WE’RE CHOPPING THE VEGGIES!  AND WE’RE ON GOOD STUDENT BEHAVIOR WHEN WE’RE IN THE COMMUNITY.  WE’RE REPRESENTING OUR SCHOOL, SO IRISH PRIDE, RIGHT?”

A cacophony of “RIGHT!” came flooding in from the bus and spilling out onto the sidewalk where I was now fully ear budded up and ready for my walk.

A quick smile and a wave between Ann and I.  Meanwhile, Charlotte bounded back on the bus without her backpack this time around, though cell phone firmly planted in hands-fingers madly texting away, blowing a bubble with her bubble gum, never taking her eyes off the tiny screen in her hands even while climbing the steep steps up into the grumbling bus.

Some Pearl Jam began floating into my ears and I quickly hollared back at Ann before heading toward the track in the back of the school, “I’ll keep it in mind for chaperoning!” But made a mental note to add PCK to my list of possible volunteer locations in future.

Positive.

Community.

Kitchen.

All things that I can get behind.

Positive.  If you know me, I’m uber positive a lot of the time.  I often think this isn’t such a great quality of mine, but perhaps I’m masking over some darker feelings I have inside.  Or I’m trying to overcompensate for a lot of the not positive things that surround me and this world.  I dunno.  But maybe I would find some positivity at PCK!

Community-  I’m all about community!  I’ve made some online communities and we’ve done so much together. (Insert volunteering, adventures, etc.) I’m always trying to build our staff community at the school closer, hosting once a month staff lunches to get us to…build community, connection and collaboration.

Kitchen-wellll….if you know me, I’m not the best in the kitchen, but I have my few go to menu items I can really whip up.  Truth be told, I could really use some more time in the kitchen and not so much time on a trail in this regard.  So perhaps I could really learn something at this volunteer opportunity!

I started out with intending only to do my one day of volunteering with PCK, as is per my usual.  I didn’t really know what to expect on day one.  From my internet research and brief conversations with Ann the health teacher, I learned that PCK is all about preparing and cooking super healthy meals on Mondays and Tuesdays, and delivering these meals on Tuesday evenings to the doors of families that are going through a severe medical issue. I assumed I’d be doing meal prep on my first day.  Upon entering the kitchen, I was immediately surprised with how organized and efficient everything seemed to be.  Here was a well run ship.  There were approximately 10 people in a fairly small sized, community kitchen…being….positive.

 

I was hooked.

 

Not to mention, Nicole, the head chef, who I really came to respect over the month, played great music in the kitchen every week.

Upon first glance in the kitchen, I noticed there were tons of hardy, reusable grocery-sized bags lined up on the counters which I came to see were full of dirty, empty tupperware and mason jars of all sizes.  2-3 people were currently pulling all these containers out, sorting and condensing them to be washed by the 2-3 dishwashers behind me.  Rinse.  Scrub.  Rinse.  Sanitize.  Dry.  Memories of my first jobs in high school and college came flooding back.  My bussing days at the Mexican restaurant, my catering days at the Italian business in high school, my dishwashing days in the basement of the dining hall at college.  An industrial sized stainless steel table, walk-in fridges and gigantic sink nozzles all set to the faint background smells of bleach will bring me right back.

I jumped right in, eager to help along with this process.  I was on tupperware/mason jar sorting duty for the first hour (that’s how many bags there were), before transitioning to chopping duty.  The following 2 weeks I was on dish duty.  There was a gigantic whiteboard in the room, with well laid out instructions of ingredients and how much was needed of each kind.

The board looked something like this:

Carrots 5 quarts sliced

Carrots 2 quarts julienne

Broccoli 5 quarts chopped

Eggplant 5 quarts thinly sliced

And so on.

I was surrounded by other volunteers, mostly high school students as that is one of the key elements of this program-encouraging students to help out in their communities, while also learning healthy cooking and eating habits so as to hopefully prevent them from becoming a client of this program in the future.  However, there were of course other adults, mostly retired folks, as well helping to mentor the youngsters in the room. I was on for that day as an adult mentor, but it really was the two kiddos that paired up with me who showed me around that day.  (Where to find the cutting boards, reminding me how many cups were in a quart.)  Already I was learning something in the kitchen!

I think I chopped 5 quarts of carrots and 5 quarts of celery that day.

I had come in at noon and it was already 2pm!  At 2, another shift of 10 volunteers would come in and work until 4 picking up right where we all left off on our assignments.  I would walk away from my mound of broccoli and watch as another volunteer start right in where I was.

While chopping, I tried to hold space in my heart for the people that would be eating the meals.  Who were they?  What were they battling?  Sending silent wishes up to whoever to watch over them, give them strength.  Sometimes, I could almost hear one of my Dad’s sermons in my head, the congregational prayers he would say aloud in the sanctuary for those in need in our little church and community.

Another week, more tupperware/veggie chopping.  This time it was carrots again followed by a large bin of awkwardly shaped beets I peeled and chunked.   I steered clear of the onions.  Forget that noise.  I’m not about to chop 5 quarts of onions.  No thank you.

The last week, I signed up for the shift of delivery angel.   I had enjoyed my time behind the scenes preparing the meals, but I was ready to see the other side.  I lined up  in a narrow hallway around 5:45 pm after work, along with about 10 other angels as everyone referred to themselves as.  We all quietly awaited being called in to grab our now full hardy, reusable grocery-sized bags on the counters, full of fresh cooked meals.  I could hear the kiddos in the kitchen putting their finishing touches on each bag, sealing the jars, adding the name tags and letters addressed to each family.

I did a ride along with another angel’s route, and together we delivered to about 8 different homes-many scarily next door to each other.  Each delivery angel has a section of town to deliver.  And on our section of town, each driveway that we approached and doorstep that we stood on-my delivery angel trainer would tell me bits and pieces of each person’s story before the door was opened.

“I’ve been delivering to Sadie for about 8 weeks.  She recently had her surgery and is doing really well!”

“This will be the last delivery for Trish, she has been pursuing death with dignity with her doctor for a long time, and I think this is her last week.  This will be a hard visit for me.”

“Mark is just a young guy with two kids.  It’s so hard to see someone that young with cancer who has two young kids. It’s just heartbreaking.  Heart Breaking.   I think they’re planning to leave the country to seek further medical options.”

“Shae had cancer 22 years ago, and now it’s back.  I know her very well, we used to work together at the college.  I need to ask her about a new bone density trial I”m doing now that my cancer is in remission, I’ve heard it really helps.”

Everyone had cancer and everyone were neighbors, separated by only a couple of streets each.  We delivered food, but what I think we really delivered was connection.  My angel trainer would spend anywhere from 10-20 minutes with each person, listening, probing with her own questions based on her experience with Dr. This or surgeon That, or injection this.  There were stories of battles, insurance approvals to be waited on, doctors phone calls to wait on,  but as is the case with life, also the stories of joy.  I think we heard about two weddings, a new job offer and a grad school acceptance.  Pictures of grandaughters were proudly shared, while tears also brimmed to the surface while discussing the latest “road bump” in Mark’s cancer battle.

“I keep telling him, it’s just a road bump it’s all it is.” Kathy said stoically in her kitchen, before insisting we take some of her tomatoes from her garden that were sitting in a basket on her kitchen table.  “There’s no way I can eat all of these!!!”

Carefully cradling my paper sack of tomatoes, and as we said goodbye over our shoulders to Kathy  who was our last delivery for the evening, and whose husband was just admitted back to the hospital again the other day after his son’s wedding and we had just spent about 20-25 minutes with, my angel trainer looked at me with kind, knowing eyes and just said…”Sometimes ya just know.”  I looked down at my feet as they crossed the warm pavement over to her Subaru.  We both dropped the empty grocery bags into my delivery angel’s trunk that we grabbed from each home before giving the family fresh new bags with new food.  Pulling the hatchback closed on her car, “Sometimes ya just know who needs a little more listening.”  I looked back at my trainer and nodded with my own knowing eyes.  Boy, did I know given what I do at work, thinking back to some of the students I’ve really spent some time with over my career since 2006.  Listening.  Validating.  Encouraging.  Advocating for.

And so, that is how my “day of volunteering” this month quickly became my “month of volunteering” with the Positive Community Kitchen.

Want to help?  Sign up to become a volunteer at PCK’s website: http://www.positivecommunitykitchen.org/volunteer-hours/

They are in high need of delivery angels or delivery sub angels at this time.  (Tuesday evenings 5:45-approx. 8:30pm) .

Positive Community Kitchen Mission Statement: to provide community wellness through food.