TreskaDunbar

Treska Dunbar

SOWK 350

Journal/Reflection

March 11, 2009

Today we worked at the Nashville Rescue Mission. I worked downstairs in the storage room. At first we were organizing can food, so that the kitchen staff will have an easier time finding what they need when they need it. Next, we sorted bed linens and bagged them. After we had them all sorted and bagged, another gentleman who works at the mission told us that they didn’t need them bagged and that we needed to take them out of the bags and place them in bins. This was frustrating. We had spent most of our day bagging these linens only to take them out and place them in bins. This miscommunication among staff caused the work ethic of the group to change. Everyone was in a good mood and had good work ethic until we were asked to move the linens and then everyone became annoyed and the work ethic shifted drastically.

Many of the homeless people mentioned that they could see the difference that we were making. They all were constantly thanking us for giving up our time to work for and with them. The staff at the Nashville Rescue Mission served us a delicious appreciation dinner. They were so thankful for the work that we have been doing there. However, I had mixed feelings about eating the appreciation dinner. It was a buffet of about ten different choices. It was hard knowing that I had all of these options of food upstairs, and the homeless were eating the cafeteria food downstairs.

I noticed on the first day that we ate at the mission that they don’t offer the clients any salt or pepper to season their food. I know they have plenty of salt and pepper, because when we were organizing non-perishable foods there was a large amount of salt and pepper. They provided us with salt and pepper at our appreciation dinner, so why can they not provide them with salt and pepper upstairs?

I am still amazed at the faith in God that these homeless individuals have. Today I spoke with a homeless individual and he asked about my faith in God. We were able to have a good conversation about God. It amazes me that he can have such a strong faith in God after all he has been through. Overall, today was a good day and I enjoyed serving this population.