A Just Harvest

A little while ago, I visited the food pantry in Evanston with some of my sociology class where we served food to those in poverty. Upon arriving, I was already nervous because the are seemed very run down and sketchy. I felt a lot better walking into the building and meeting the staff at A Just Harvest. The people volunteering there were so friendly, inviting, and funny. When the entire class arrived, we were all assigned different jobs. I was to be the "resetter," the person that puts out new place settings after people leave and the busboy picks up their dirty dishes. Before doing this however, I volunteered to help carry in a bunch of food from the outside truck, where a saw a line of people starting to form outside the kitchen, waiting to get their meals. I was nervous at first to interact with them, but soon found out that they were very nice, and they held the door open for me as I carried food in. I also poured drinks for all the tables, which included water, coffee, and tea.

The person in charge encouraged us to talk to the people a lot, and to put ourselves out there to be friendly. I'm usually really shy when meeting new people, so this was kind of hard for me. However, I ended up talking to way more people than the suggested five I introduce myself to. While waiting for tables to reset, I talked to a baker who knew the bagel shop my dad used to own near the area, two little boys who liked batman and superman, a man dressed in a nice suit, a woman who drew pictures and photocopied them to color in later (she even gave me a few of them), a man who told me that I always needed to have a positive outlook on life, a preteen boy who liked to read, and a man interested in WWII who was reading Stalingrad. I talked to many more people than this, but these were the people that stood out to me. Everyone was so polite and nice when they were talking to me. Many would call me by the name on my name tag, or "miss", and would excessively say "please," "thank you," and "very much appreciated." I would also have who I didn't even serve thanking me before they left. 

I had a really good time at A Just Harvest. The people were very friendly and the atmosphere was very community like. I felt like I was making a more direct impact on people than I was at Feed My Starving Children, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to do community service.  It's an experience I could see myself doing again in my own free time. It was nice to see how grateful everyone was for my time, and I felt like I was making a difference.