Being Neighborly

Through my recent years of working on the Empty Bowls fundraisers, I am well aware of the numbers, the volume, of hungry in south Wood County. Yet it never fails to startle me when those numbers become a face, a real person.

Tonight our church was in the rotation to host The Neighborhood Table – a nonprofit, charitable organization staffed by volunteers who provide free meals to anyone in need. First English Lutheran is among the 100 community groups that have sponsored a meal there each year. It takes that many "hosts" and that many volunteers to provide this needed service.

In total, more than 1,500 volunteers help during the year (about 20-25 at each meal). On average, about 375 meals are served every Thursday and about 170 meals are served each Tuesday (the last two of the month).

This evening, we served 191 meals. Just simple, yet free, meals with milk, juice, water or coffee to drink. Simple yet needed.

I was a server (aka waitress) in charge of one table. However, all of us helped out as needed making sure people were getting their food in a timely fashion, no matter whose table they were occupying. I had a mixture of adults and children cycle through my table. It's sad to see the children but good to see that their mothers are doing what they can to get them a decent meal.

At one point, I had an older (as in 65-plus) gentleman sit at my table. All he wanted was a coffee and glass of water. He did not want me to serve him a plate of food. I could not convince him to skip straight to dessert or enjoy a fresh banana either. He sat a few minutes and left. His coffee hardly touched. One of my fellow church ladies saw him leave and asked me if he had something to eat. I explained that he just sat a bit but didn't want anything.

"Well what's he going to do for food?" she said. "He's homeless."

Homeless? I almost asked her where he lives but I guess if you are homeless, you don't "live" anywhere. Instead I asked where the homeless "go" in our community. She just frowned and said, "I don't know. I just don't know."

Hungry and homeless. They are here. It is happening. In OUR neighborhood.

While I can't profess to have any knack for waitressing, I am so glad Carter and I took advantage of this mother-son volunteering opportunity. He was right at home in the kitchen, running the dishwasher, which is quite similar to the one he operates while working at the golf course.

He kept pretty busy and had an enjoyable time bonding with one of the "old guys" from our church who thinks Carter's a good kid. While I was dropping off dishes, he says to me, "Carter's doing twice as much work as I am. It's a perfect arrangement!"

Carter did enjoy hearing Pete tell him "kitchen stories" from his days in the service. And I bet Pete (an Honor Flight vet like hubby's uncles) enjoyed telling them!

You know. If we just close our mouths and open our ears, our eyes and our minds, we can learn a lot from other people, can't we? Maybe even learn to respect them for who they are, who they were and what they hope to be. We can see their struggles, appreciate what we have and pray for them.

That's just being neighborly.