A way to keep out of trouble

usually, I make sure I eat a good breakfast before heading out to the local soup kitchen.

I have been volunteering there for several months. I am learning the faces, and more slowly, the names that go with them.

It is towards the end of the month, and a drippy, cold 47 degrees. I figure this will be a high volume day, and start tossing water bottles into the bags mostly school children have packed in bags the Saturday before.

Here, we have a need for disposable plastic bags. We give them to the hungry. Some of the hungry are homeless, but not all. We make no discrimination. College kids, at the end of their grants or scholarships, sometimes come to eke out survival till finals.

Others have shelter and transport, but can't eat without us. We get food--some fresh, some canned, some bread,eggs, and some fruits--from Walmart MWF.Target and other stores pitch in on Tuesday-Thursday.

If we have food leftover, we have two farms the leftovers go to. We get free pork and chickens in return.

I say we. I control nothing, except the weekkend packs I feel and dispense to the homeless.

I like most folks. I like these. I am sorry for the disabilities that don't let them live more fully, but I am glad I can dispense food and water for them to survive until Monday.

Every so often, someone settles down and qualifies for a subsidized apartment. They have graduated. They come back often to eat. But they are getting on with their lives. I love that. Maintaing an apartment, even subsidized, is a long way from living in a culvert. Yes. People do that. I've met them.

I love doing this work.