"The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international non-profit organization dedicated to serving the poor and providing others with the opportunity to serve. The Phoenix Diocesan Council has been assisting central and northern Arizona families since 1946. Programs include services for the homeless, medical and dental care for the working poor, charity dining rooms, thrift stores, a transitional housing shelter and general assistance for individuals in need", http://www.stvincentdepaul.net/.
Journal
My first day was 09/19/11 which was a Monday. I first arrived at about 3:45 and got out around 6:30. As I arrived at St. Vincent I first went to talk to Mike. Mike then gave me a log in code, which I could use to track my hours. After I was logged in Mike took me to the dining hall where he introduced me to Christina the head volunteer. As I entered the cafeteria I had a sense of nervousness, kind of like the first day of school or a job interview. I walked into this place for the first time and I don’t know anyone and I am going into a situation that I have never been in. As in most places who handle food my first task was to wash my hands. The appearance of the cafeteria was interesting to me because it is your standard looking cafeteria, but you have security guards at the entrances and exits, but yet there is a banner of St. Vincent that is hanging from the ceiling. It was kind of contradicting itself, because you have this place of good and hope all in the name of St.Vincent, but yet you have the muscle in case something bad happened. I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry. After that we then went to start setting up the tables for the families. Every table gets six cups, six pairs of silverware, a bowl of salt and pepper, a pitcher of water, and a pitcher of juice. After we completed that we then were all assigned a job for the night. My job was working the salad bar. The salad bar is pretty self explanatory. You basically have two maybe three trays and then as people come to the salad bar you give them a scoop or two of food. As the family start to go through the salad bar line you can see that they live in poverty. It’s kind of hard for me to image not having food on the table or in the refrigerator because in my life I have never had to experience that. You can see in most of the children eyes that they don’t really understand the situation that their parents or families are in, but they are just happy to have food. As far as the parents go, for most of them they seem to have a look of fake happiness but it is masked by the stress and concerns of what the next day or the end of the month bring. On this day it was almost a surreal experience for me because yes I am aware that people’s lives out there are not a perfect and easy as others, but to take a glance at it is something that put your life into perspective.
On day 11/14/11, once again I arrived at 4:00 and got done at 6:30. As I arrived at St. Vincent de Paul I was feeling optimistic about today. I got the first day out of the way and now I have a little better sense of how things work. First thing I do it clock in and make my name badge. Then as I walk through the big solid cold door of the cafeteria I am hit with a blast of air. To my surprise this time the cafeteria was virtually empty, except for maybe a few people. As I went to wash my hands I ran into Jason who is an employee at St. Vincent de Paul who runs the cafeteria. Unfortunately, Jason is not much of a talker so he was not much of a help on what I was going to be doing that evening. I figure I would just take matter into my own hands and just start to set up tables. Maybe it is because I have worked retail for most of my life, but in my opinion I feel St. Vincent de Paul runs kind of an insufficient program. For example in retail you have a very structured plain of where you go what you will be doing and how long you will be doing it for. At St. Vincent you have different people every time you go in and direction aren’t really clear, direction are giving as one thing at a time, versus a few task so that when you finish one you and move on to another, and you have to make the effort to ask “what should I do next” rather than someone telling you. Now I realize they are two completely deferent things, but similar in ways. I just feel that the cafeteria at least is run insufficiently. Anyways after killing some time the head volunteer finally assigned everyone their job. That night I was a server, which I liked a lot better thing the salad bar. At the salad bar you are just stuck there scooping food. There is no time to interact with people it is very slow at the salad bar. Serving on the other hand is fast pace you get to interact with the kids and the families by taking the orders and then taking the hot food out to them. Even though these families are in relative and absolute poverty who attend the dinners, they are still people, so by going around you get to take a minute of two to interact with them and really see these people for who they are. Versus the salad bar where it is just a conveyer belt of the in need society. After all the families have finished eating we started the clean up process. For the most part it is just basic stuff, taking out the trash, sweeping, and wiping down tables. I have to admit this was probably my least favorite part of this experiment. The ripe smell of week old food sitting in the compactor and the distinct smell of bench is not my favorite way to end the night.
On one of my last days was on 11/21/11 I remember arrived at 4:00 and left for the at 6:30. At lasts the final trip to St. Vincent de Paul. As I walked to the dining room and through the big metal door to wash my hands one more time some sense of satisfaction fell over me, but there still was something missing. For my last job a St. Vincent de Paul I was the expediter, which is the person who reads off the orders to the people at the hot meal line and keeps everything moving smoothly with tray of plates going out to each table. I was expecting a pretty easy mellow night, but little did I know it was going to be the busiest night I have seen sense I have been a volunteer. Unforntunately, I do not know the exact numbers, but from a visible observation the dining hall seats forty-two table, at six people per table, and that night we filled about sixty tables. As you can see that is quite a few families that were fed. Knowing this would be my last trip down to St. Vincent de Paul I had a kind of incomplete feeling in me. This would be the night I was going to do the interview with one of the parents who attend St. Vincent often, I had already done the interview over the phone with the head volunteer, and I had already started my write for this project, so it wasn’t a feeling about the work I had done for this class. I felt as though I didn’t make a real difference. Sure for the three nights I went and worked I’m sure the cafeteria benefited from my time they, but did I make a lasting difference in the fight against poverty. Best way I can describe it is that I found a band aid and I found a place that could use it, but St. Vincent doesn’t really change the epidemic of poverty it provides a service that is there to mask the issue of poverty not neccesarily to cure poverty. Now don’t get me wrong St.Vincent is a wonderful place and does get thing for families in need, but it doesn’t get people out of need, they just make being in need a little less painful. St. Vincent de Paul reminds me of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Like the act I feel it does not fix the problem of poverty. The Act does not prevent poverty it only provides a temporary fix. These Act and program need to focus more on changing the lives of people instead of just a quick fix.
My first day was 09/19/11 which was a Monday. I first arrived at about 3:45 and got out around 6:30. As I arrived at St. Vincent I first went to talk to Mike. Mike then gave me a log in code, which I could use to track my hours. After I was logged in Mike took me to the dining hall where he introduced me to Christina the head volunteer. As I entered the cafeteria I had a sense of nervousness, kind of like the first day of school or a job interview. I walked into this place for the first time and I don’t know anyone and I am going into a situation that I have never been in. As in most places who handle food my first task was to wash my hands. The appearance of the cafeteria was interesting to me because it is your standard looking cafeteria, but you have security guards at the entrances and exits, but yet there is a banner of St. Vincent that is hanging from the ceiling. It was kind of contradicting itself, because you have this place of good and hope all in the name of St.Vincent, but yet you have the muscle in case something bad happened. I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry. After that we then went to start setting up the tables for the families. Every table gets six cups, six pairs of silverware, a bowl of salt and pepper, a pitcher of water, and a pitcher of juice. After we completed that we then were all assigned a job for the night. My job was working the salad bar. The salad bar is pretty self explanatory. You basically have two maybe three trays and then as people come to the salad bar you give them a scoop or two of food. As the family start to go through the salad bar line you can see that they live in poverty. It’s kind of hard for me to image not having food on the table or in the refrigerator because in my life I have never had to experience that. You can see in most of the children eyes that they don’t really understand the situation that their parents or families are in, but they are just happy to have food. As far as the parents go, for most of them they seem to have a look of fake happiness but it is masked by the stress and concerns of what the next day or the end of the month bring. On this day it was almost a surreal experience for me because yes I am aware that people’s lives out there are not a perfect and easy as others, but to take a glance at it is something that put your life into perspective.
On day 11/14/11, once again I arrived at 4:00 and got done at 6:30. As I arrived at St. Vincent de Paul I was feeling optimistic about today. I got the first day out of the way and now I have a little better sense of how things work. First thing I do it clock in and make my name badge. Then as I walk through the big solid cold door of the cafeteria I am hit with a blast of air. To my surprise this time the cafeteria was virtually empty, except for maybe a few people. As I went to wash my hands I ran into Jason who is an employee at St. Vincent de Paul who runs the cafeteria. Unfortunately, Jason is not much of a talker so he was not much of a help on what I was going to be doing that evening. I figure I would just take matter into my own hands and just start to set up tables. Maybe it is because I have worked retail for most of my life, but in my opinion I feel St. Vincent de Paul runs kind of an insufficient program. For example in retail you have a very structured plain of where you go what you will be doing and how long you will be doing it for. At St. Vincent you have different people every time you go in and direction aren’t really clear, direction are giving as one thing at a time, versus a few task so that when you finish one you and move on to another, and you have to make the effort to ask “what should I do next” rather than someone telling you. Now I realize they are two completely deferent things, but similar in ways. I just feel that the cafeteria at least is run insufficiently. Anyways after killing some time the head volunteer finally assigned everyone their job. That night I was a server, which I liked a lot better thing the salad bar. At the salad bar you are just stuck there scooping food. There is no time to interact with people it is very slow at the salad bar. Serving on the other hand is fast pace you get to interact with the kids and the families by taking the orders and then taking the hot food out to them. Even though these families are in relative and absolute poverty who attend the dinners, they are still people, so by going around you get to take a minute of two to interact with them and really see these people for who they are. Versus the salad bar where it is just a conveyer belt of the in need society. After all the families have finished eating we started the clean up process. For the most part it is just basic stuff, taking out the trash, sweeping, and wiping down tables. I have to admit this was probably my least favorite part of this experiment. The ripe smell of week old food sitting in the compactor and the distinct smell of bench is not my favorite way to end the night.
On one of my last days was on 11/21/11 I remember arrived at 4:00 and left for the at 6:30. At lasts the final trip to St. Vincent de Paul. As I walked to the dining room and through the big metal door to wash my hands one more time some sense of satisfaction fell over me, but there still was something missing. For my last job a St. Vincent de Paul I was the expediter, which is the person who reads off the orders to the people at the hot meal line and keeps everything moving smoothly with tray of plates going out to each table. I was expecting a pretty easy mellow night, but little did I know it was going to be the busiest night I have seen sense I have been a volunteer. Unforntunately, I do not know the exact numbers, but from a visible observation the dining hall seats forty-two table, at six people per table, and that night we filled about sixty tables. As you can see that is quite a few families that were fed. Knowing this would be my last trip down to St. Vincent de Paul I had a kind of incomplete feeling in me. This would be the night I was going to do the interview with one of the parents who attend St. Vincent often, I had already done the interview over the phone with the head volunteer, and I had already started my write for this project, so it wasn’t a feeling about the work I had done for this class. I felt as though I didn’t make a real difference. Sure for the three nights I went and worked I’m sure the cafeteria benefited from my time they, but did I make a lasting difference in the fight against poverty. Best way I can describe it is that I found a band aid and I found a place that could use it, but St. Vincent doesn’t really change the epidemic of poverty it provides a service that is there to mask the issue of poverty not neccesarily to cure poverty. Now don’t get me wrong St.Vincent is a wonderful place and does get thing for families in need, but it doesn’t get people out of need, they just make being in need a little less painful. St. Vincent de Paul reminds me of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Like the act I feel it does not fix the problem of poverty. The Act does not prevent poverty it only provides a temporary fix. These Act and program need to focus more on changing the lives of people instead of just a quick fix.