There's a local area church that holds an annual memorial service for the area homeless who've passed away that year. The observance includes dinner, and this year's service was held last night. I neglected to account for that, and we had less than five people show up last night.
One of them turned out to be new to the streets and just happened to be passing by. He'd been eating nothing but peanut butter all week and was grateful to get a hot meal. We ended up talking for probably two hours. This person I'll call Dave is trying to get into PCC (Pasadena Community College) and hopeful that most of the credits he's already accumulated will transfer. He likes history but is focusing on the area of kinesiology leading to some sort of PT/OT career. Throughout our conversation he kept commenting on how wonderful it was just to have a normal conversation.
Some people show up just for the food. They show up, eat and leave, or they leave carrying their plates and eat elsewhere. But there are some who are grateful for the chance for some regular social interaction. I was happy to meet 'Dave' and learn a bit about him, but there is no way I can do that regularly with everyone who shows up; we need people who are willing to show up regularly and provide the opportunity for connection.
At present we show up and try to start serving dinner at 6:45pm Tuesday night (looking to expand to Thursday nights as well) and we're typically done by 8pm (though I personally have stayed as late as 10:30pm talking with people). If you've gotten this far, and you're local to the Pasadena area, I hope you'll consider helping out by donating some of your time. If you're handy in the kitchen and are able to contribute in the food area even better. But just showing up, and being able to greet someone by their name can be meaningful.
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