My wife and I had been doing Street Outreach for the past two years but I recently switched to Door Outreach. We seemed to have an overabundance of volunteers on Thursday nights and the Door Outreach needed a helping hand so I decided to make the switch.
I have to say that Door Outreach is a well-oiled machine. You have a few volunteers outside taking our street friends’ orders. This is then passed to an intake person who checks to see if the friend is new or not. The Ottawa Food Bank also wants us to account for all the items that are given out for each order. More volunteers then take the order and fill it with the many items located in the basement of 391 Gladstone. The bags of groceries are then brought back up to street level and given to the those waiting – almost always patiently.
Now sometimes we are asked for items that we no longer have on a given day. So when handing out the bag of groceries, you need to tell the friend that some of their items they ordered are missing. Some are disappointed that we have no green tea or canned meatballs.
However, last Thursday I brought a bag of groceries to a man waiting and had to tell him we were out of a certain item (can’t even remember what the item was). But the thing that stayed with me was his response. He said to me “well I’m going home with a lot of more than I came here with”.
What a great attitude to have.
There is a Bible verse that goes along with this theme. It says “give thanks in all circumstances” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Something that I try and live by but not always easy to follow.
~Warren, Door Outreach Volunteer