Third Visit to Glide Memorial

Mia Vandermeer

26 July 2016

Glide Memorial in San Francisco

James ?

?

Today, I volunteered in the kitchen at Glide Memorial in San Francisco. Glide Memorial is an organization that provides an abundance of aid to the less fortunate of San Francisco. Not only does it offer child day-care, group therapy sessions and community events, but it also provides three free meals to the homeless 364 days a year. I have chosen to work in the kitchen at Glide because to me the idea of going through a day without a full stomach is unimaginable.

As I walked into the kitchen today at 6:45am, I passed the long line of people waiting for the kitchen doors to open. For breakfast, the doors first open at 7:30 to the senior citizens. James, the operations manager, jokes that the elderly are just the warmup of the morning and that the real marathon starts at 8:00 when the doors open to the public. All my experiences so far have concluded that he is right.

My job today, just like my last two visits, was to bust the tables of the “cafeteria”, a room about the size of two Menlo classrooms put together. I make sure each table is spick and span for the next people who come to sit at it by wiping down the tables and making sure the juice and milk pitchers are constantly ¾ full. When I was first assigned this job, I was instantly filled with gratitude. The fact that Glide was assigning volunteers to ensure that the quality of the breakfast experience was high proved that the organization not only wants to help people get their daily nutrients and vitamins, but also be treated well and respected as individuals.