JenniferBowman

Jennifer Bowman

3-7-09

Nashville Spring Break Day 1

Today went pretty well over all for me. I had absolutely no idea what to expect going into it because I have never worked with the homeless on any type of project. I was surprised when we arrived at the Nashville Rescue Mission because I had no idea that it would be so massive. My first thought about that was that it was great to have a big facility available, but then I realized that it is not good because there is a large homeless population in Nashville and they need a facility that large.

The first task that we started on was down in the basement of the building where they store all of the donations that they have received. Our leader for the day was a man named Willie, who instructed us on what we were to do. He gave us our job assignments as he led us down into the basement. It was very dark at first and I will be the first to admit that I was a little scared until they got all of the lights turned on. They have so much stuff down there that it is nearly impossible to go through everything. The main thing that I helped with was sorting used shoes into matching piles and organizing new shoes still in their boxes into size groups. It was good to see the generosity of people by all of the donated stuff that they had. However, it upset me to see some of the things that were donated. Some people seemed to just give the homeless whatever junk they have that they need to get rid of or cannot use. For example, we found dirty rags, shoes without matches, and a towel rack. These are all things that are not very useful to the homeless.

The next thing that I got to do was work in the kitchen. We found boxes of cookie tins filled with cookies and brownies somewhere in the basement while we were cleaning. Willie instructed some of the girls to take them up and get the food out of the tins and we could hand them out during the meal. This was exciting for me because I was looking forward to interacting with the homeless and also the volunteers in the kitchen. The cookies turned out to be ok when we took them out but some of the brownies that came out had mold on them. This was something that definitely seemed bad to me and we tried to get rid of the bad brownies. However, when we went to serve them during lunch a few brownies were out on the tray so we snuck them to the trash container without people looking because I don’t think that I could ever give someone a brownie with a spot of mold. Besides the brownies, the serving experience turned out to be my favorite part of the day. The kitchen staff and volunteers were some of the friendliest people I have met and they made sure we knew what we were doing and helped us in any way that they possibly could. Things got hectic at times but it was very rewarding to see the men coming through the line because they were so appreciative of everything that we did and so thankful for the food.

The Nashville Rescue Mission was a great experience for me and I am excited about going back later this week. The people are so great and they went out of their way to make us feel welcome and at home. They prepared enough food for us at lunch and dinner and also provided us with drinks throughout the day while we were working. Willie was especially kind and when he saw that we were starting to drag because of the four hours of sleep we received the night before, he took us up to rest in the T.V. lounge. The people were so much more amazing than I would have ever imagined. I think that it takes a special person to be able to do the hard job that these people at the mission do and everything that they did they did with a smile on their face. From what I understand many of the workers are graduates of their rehab program so they have had rough lives and know what it is like. All in all, I think it was a really good day and I am looking forward to going back and hopefully spending some time at the Nashville Rescue Mission’s home for women and children.