Life Center: Feeding the Hungry

Part 1

Today we went to church and Lily volunteered to cook food for the homeless one Saturday, and serve it the following Wednesday at the local “Life Center”, a community center for the homeless.

She was very insistent during the service to make sure we signed up. She even made sure that her “schedule” matched up with the event’s dates (no easy task seeing that she is only at my house every other week).

Long story short, she looked at me when they announced the opportunity and said she wanted to do it. She insisted on staying after the service to speak with the event organizer and sign up.

To confirm her commitment, when we got to Liz’s house that evening, she told her the details.

It was a reminder that helping others is the ultimate calling, an innate calling…why we’re here. I’d love to take credit for being an influence to Lily on this, but cannot.

Don’t need to.

 Life Center: Part 2

Just finished preparing the food for the Life Center. Just Lily, Ella, two women and myself. Lily jumped right in; very eager. Ella did just the opposite, preferring to play with her toys.

Cleaning up afer cooking

This was “Phase 2” of a 3-phase process: sign up, cook, and then serve. Some people “bail out” at this phase. Phase 1 is easy - sign up. Phase 2 requires some work and commitment. That didn’t stop Lil.

Lily helped as best she could - giving hope to the older women that the youth of today just need guidance and good examples.

The prep was done in a blur. Only took about an hour to make the 9 turkey casseroles...huge pot pie-style dishes.

We cleaned up and waited anxiously for Phase 3 – to serve.

Life Center: Part 3

I picked up the girls in Cherry Hill and headed to my church to butter bread and help get everything ready to feed the homeless that night. Lily’s excitement was subdued, but infectious. She knew what was going on; why this was happening. Because Ella is only 3, she was more curious than anything, and “along for the ride”. But, surprisingly, she rolled up her sleeves at “Crunch Time” and took part.

Side Note: Taking an 8 year old and her 3 year old sister to feed the homeless definitely highlights the gaps in the two girls’ understanding of what’s happening. As an adult, I make the false assumption that both of my girls can relate to what we’re doing…stupid dad. I’m not sure at what age that kids can identify with the reality that some people are starving, but not everyone. And furthermore, that if we all reached out to help each other, no one would be “starving”. But that’s a topic, perhaps, for another story.

Anyway, the 9 casseroles were cooked; the 15 loaves of bread buttered. We hit the road.

At the Life Center Lily got in line with the other servers. She was in charge of putting desserts on everyone’s plate (a plastic sandwich bag of 4 cookies). She was beaming.

Never underestimate the number of people in Philly/Upper Darby looking for a hot, free meal. Perhaps the only one they’ve had in days. The demand was so great that we continuously ran out of the desserts we brought and had to improvise with what was available.

Each time a new dessert was ready to serve Lily would announce it to the crowd. “Sugar Cookies! Cake! Come get your cake!” She really got into it. My heart soared. That might sound corny and sappy, but it’s true. Seeing my daughter so happy to help others was awesome.

Not to sell Ella short, she helped put desserts on the plates we made for the tireless Life Center workers. All Ella required was one “pink cookie”. One day, I’m sure; she’ll help without any requirements. Time will tell.

After everyone was served, and the food gone, Lily turned to me and said, “One guy told me ‘Thank You. Thank you for helping out.’ That was great.” That was her reward…her pink cookie. One day she won’t even need that reinforcement.

Again, I take no credit for my daughters’ desire to help others. Helping others is an innate, but suppressed, instinct. But guess what? It’s still there and can be set free!

Just give it a chance.