30deeds

I posted this on my Facebook and Twitter page a few weeks ago but it is definitely worth posting here as well.  Just a great story on an incredible human being.

This past weekend, I was walking through Hoboken on my way to a local grocery store.  As I approached the store, a homeless man asked if I could spare any change.  I said “No, but I would be happy to buy you food”, and he politely declined.  I didn’t think much of it and went about shopping in the store.  As I was leaving he asked “Is that offer still good? There is a burger place down the street”.

I walked with him to the burger place (Johnny Rockets) and told him to order anything he wanted.  He ordered, a burger, fries, and a milkshake.  He was extremely grateful and thanked me many times.

Most people, including myself, are hesitant to hand homeless men or women money.  That doesn’t mean you can’t help.  Next time a homeless man or woman asks for money, instead of just ignoring them, offer to buy them a meal.

When most people think of volunteering, the first thing that comes to their mind is a soup kitchen.  I had never volunteered at one before last Monday.  The image I had in my head was completely different from the actual environment.

All Souls Church treats the entire experience like a nice  restaurant.  Guests are seated at tables with tablecloths.  They are served coffee, tea, soup, salad, a main course, and dessert.  The meal served that night was ginger chicken, brown rice, and steamed fresh vegetables(the food looked very good and the guests seemed quite satisfied).  I spent my time serving coffee, the main course, and helping clean everything up.

The most amazing part of the experience were the guests(250 of them).  I can honestly say that I have never been around a more grateful, polite, friendly group of people.  Everyone was so happy to have a warm  place for a few hours, a hot meal, and  nice people to converse with.  I struck up a conversation with a man that had spare computer parts.  He found a broken laptop and salvaged the ram, and wireless chip.  He was so intelligent, engaging and gave me a detailed description of the different types of ram and how he was going to utilize the parts.

If more people volunteered at a similar place, I really believe it could make a difference in the world.  It makes you truly appreciate what you have and opens your eyes to the everyday things you take for granted.  If these people, who have been through so much and fallen on hard times, can be so happy and grateful…why can’t you?