Serving at St. Martin's: A really fun morning!

by Cyrus Mingley, age 11

Serving at St. Martin's

We left early one Sunday morning (July 26, 2015)  to go to Saint Martin’s Hospitality Center to serve breakfast to the homeless.  When we got to the center, there were lots of homeless people outside drinking coffee, and others were just getting there.  A lot of the homeless men and women were Hispanic or Native American, but we saw a big mix of people.  Most people looked to be about 30 to 70 years old.  We walked in and got directions to the kitchen.

We walked into the kitchen and met up with the other volunteers from Canterbury to help get the breakfast ready.  First, we made some fruit punch with Kelsey.  The punch had orange juice and cranberry juice.  After that, Eileen set us up with supplies and we wrapped about 200 sets of napkins with a spoon and fork inside.  Then, it was time to serve breakfast.  We opened up the window cover and started to fix the plates for the disabled homeless people.  My dad, Hadrian, Sally, and I put some pieces of ham, a bun, some cantaloupe, watermelon, and a tub of yogurt on a plate.  Then, we put the plate on a tray and other volunteers (Don and Pam) added a bowl of cereal, a cup of milk, and gave them to the disabled people.  Then, the non-disabled people formed a line and we started serving them the same food as the disabled people.  Kinsey and her parents (Dave and Stephanie), along with Ken, helped bring us more food and supplies when we were running low.  After everyone got something to eat, some people came back for seconds and a few came back for thirds.  I felt really good about helping them get enough to eat for breakfast.  After that, we went to Canterbury for church service.

It means a lot to me helping the homeless, and people down on their luck, get food and drink if they can't afford it.  I thought they were lucky to get some breakfast that they didn’t have to pay for, and they were very grateful.  Most said “God bless you” or “Thank you so much,” and one person said, “It’s good to see some boy’s helping out here.”  I felt sorry that they had such poor living conditions.  After helping the homeless people at Saint Martin's Hospitality Center, I felt really good and that I should do it again sometime soon.  It was a really fun morning!