Megan Sullivan service learning log 3

Service Learning Log – kitchen shift
Marisa, Jaime, and I left campus at 4:30 to arrive at Project Angel Heart at 5:00, however traffic was rather slower than we thought, so we arrived a little late. We walked in and Tom directed us where to go and what to do. He was very good at giving directions, so he must do it quite often with new volunteers in the kitchen. There were already six or seven other volunteers already there, filling soup containers and labeling desserts. Tom instructed us to get our hands washed and put on aprons. He then showed us how to chop celery. We got our own large knives, a cutting board, and a couple buckets of celery. We began chopping very slowly, trying to emulate what Tom showed us; he made it look extremely easy. We had three large buckets that we had to chop and thankfully three other people joined us, or else it would have taking us hours to finish.
As far as interacting with other volunteers, we were eventually joined by three other volunteers who we found out were also DU students. They were all part of Sarah Pesson’s class that we might interview for our final paper. We talked to one of the girls from DU; she was a junior and a Biology major. Two other older volunteers joined us to chop onions, but seemed to know each other well and were having a conversation between themselves and didn’t interact with us students really.
After finishing the celery, there wasn’t any other food preparation to do that evening, so he had all of us students polish the cooking equipment and sweep out and mop the walk in refrigerator. Because we were volunteering the night before Dining Out For Life, Tom said there wasn’t much other work for us. After we were finished with the cleaning, we left at about 7:00.
From my observations, the staff members at Angel Heart consisted of Tom, who I think was the head chef and two other professional-looking staff, one of which I noticed had a Johnson and Wales chef’s coat on.
It was interesting to note the differences between doing Saturday deliveries and working in the kitchen. In the kitchen, it seems that one can form more relationships with people because you are working closely with them and there is much more potential to make friends. Unless you complete deliveries with other people, it seems to be a more solitary volunteering endeavor. With deliveries, you get to interact with clients a little, but are limited to hellos and other small talk. It is very clear that you are not to interact with clients very extensively.
This was my last time of required volunteering at Angel Heart, and I enjoyed it as much as delivering meals. However, because you don’t interact with the clients while doing the meal preparation shifts, the volunteer dynamic is different and as a volunteer, you feel something very different compared to meal deliveries. Working in the kitchen seemed to be all about the community aspect with the staff and volunteers. When people come on a regular basis, they can share stories, give advice, and joke around while chopping vegetables and ladling soup. I guess I feel that because I only went to the kitchen once, I missed out on that community aspect of the experience. However, I guess I did gain a glimpse into what the dynamic of the meal prep shifts are like, which made me want to go back to volunteer.
After reflecting on my time, I feel like I would’ve liked to contribute more hours of volunteering toward Project Angel Heart, but transportation is an issue, and the quarter is about over. I know that I didn’t volunteer enough to make any connections with the staff or other volunteers there and I feel a bit guilty that I only went a couple times as part of a requirement. I feel like I have a lot more to gain in volunteering experience and hope to be able to volunteering there in the future.
I also participated in Dining Out For Life on Thursday night. My mother was in town and she took a group of friends and I out to the restaurant WaterCourse. The food was extremely good and the restaurant was very busy for a Thursday night. We had to get reservations for 8 o’clock because they were so busy with customers participating in Dining Out For Life. It was awesome to see the amount of people that came to support Project Angel Heart.