I recently went to a soup kitchen for lunch for the first time. I was a little nervous and did not know how it worked. It was super easy, the food was nourishing and delicious and the people were very nice.

Basically, you walk in, look for the little hot food serving area and stand in line. They grab a plate and ask you if you want each food item put on it. Then you grab your utensils and sit down around long tables and eat. There is salt and pepper on the tables.

No one bothers you. You can sit in there and read while you eat if you want. No one asks you anything. At most, people will just say hello.

You can even have second helpings. It's all free and you don't have to fill anything out or say a word.

I found it a comforting experience.

I need to come to your soup kitchen. I have been doing the Salvation Army one here and you pick up the tray that is already filled and sit down.

There is no sitting around(lol).

Usually they are so full, forget about seconds, but there have been a few times when they had food leftover. But I needed to walk home before it got dark, so did not accept the offer.

Great subject!

The Bread of Life foodbank has a weekly hot meal for free on tuesday nights in my town. Last tues I got a hot spagetti/meat/veggie entree with salasd, garlic bread, milk and cake for dessert.

Then I picked up my food box and bags of bread and produce for the rest of the week. A very nice situation for free.

To Jilly,

My dream ,is to open a soup kitchen ,to give back what the
universe has given me.Hey ,here is a project I can start working on. I am well known in my village. Thanks for the idea.

A simple buddhist named
loong

loong, i think that is lovely! I hope you do that. In this town, lots of markets are happy to support food banks with food that is nearing its 'use by' date.

This week at the Bread of Life the dinner was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread with butter, milk and cake.

Tonite I had a lovely free chicken, gravy, beef stew and mashed potato meal at my Bread of Life food bank this evening. Plus I got two free boxes of food and several bags more of breads, meats and produce to take home.

Loong, tell me more about your soup kitchen idea! I love that these places can easily use food from the supermarkets that have to be pulled from from the shelves anyway - so this is food that is still sound and nutritious, but would otherwise be tossed. It's like having a wonderful food ecosystem within one's community!

It's all about being part of the solution. I only hope that by my posts and articles here, I am doing my part.

Our local soup kitchen gives out bagged lunches to the people who came to eat as they leave. The kitchen started out when a local priest, who had grown up knowing hunger, decided to hand out bagged lunches to the folks living on the street. As it turned into an actual soup kitchen serving meals the bagged lunches stayed. Different denominations came together and different churches send members on different days to help out. I volunteered a few times years ago, and it was a nice experience. I also received all of the fixin's for my own thanksgiving dinner through this group one year. As hard as things can be in the community where I live, its nice to know no one here has to go hungry.

AKlisa, that is a nice, comforting thing to know. I love the idea of the bagged lunches - that is very sweet. It has a nice, cared-for feeling to it. Get a meal and take a meal. Lovely!

I feel pretty good about my own community - there are so many food banks and facilities to help those living in poverty.

Do you have homeless people in your area? Where do they sleep in the Alaskan winters?

Yes, we have a high number of homeless in our area. We have a Rescue Mission with fairly strict rules that do not admit anyone who has consumed any alcohol and everyone there MUST attend their chapel. we also have a women's shelter exclusively for women and children who are domestic violence victims. It is super rare for a man to be a victim, but the women's shelter will find a place for male victim to stay for free if he needs help.
There are a few programs for troubled runaway teens, but they require admission and are totally overburdened.
So, for the folks who are drunk and homeless, we have a big community problem. They hang out during the day at the Episcopal Church, go to lunch at soup kitchen across the street at Methodist Church, on Saturdays and Sundays lunch at the Catholic church.
There is a combined church ministry trying to get a shelter for these folks. They are working hard to get money. The drunk or high homeless have found abandoned buildings and areas where heat is blown out from other building heat systems to sleep. Every year we have homeless who could not stay at the Rescue Mission who freeze to death. The mission does have liability issues where they are not able to handle people who are drunk or high.
the extra teens hang out by the local public library, and some of the local stores quietly let these teens sleep in management offices during the bitter cold snaps. I have changed some of my grocery shopping to support these stores. It is done on the down-low. The local teens homes that are always full will break rules and let extra teens in to sleep on the floor when it is super cold. Fund raising is also currently going on to build a homeless teen shelter. I think it would help a lot if Alaska did more about domestic violence. Many teens run away to escape abuse that the state doesn't really respond to. Many of the substance abusers have horrendous abuse in their backgrounds. Alaska leads the nation in DV.
I take a lot of hope in how we run our soup kitchens, food bank, and women's shelter. Also from the volunteers that just get out there and start programs to help, like the groups trying to get money for the new shelters. For the size of population we have, we have a lot of volunteer run organizations to help out.

Lisa, i was thinking about your places that lets people sleep inside on cold nights. We really need something like that here in the summer. People die here every year from heat stroke and heat exhaustion.

We don't actually have anywhere here for the homeless to sleep in the verde valley area. Lot of food pantries and some day programs, but for sleeping they are on their own.