Example Of Community Service project Essay

For my community service project, I decided to volunteer at my local soup kitchen. The soup kitchen is run by the church that my family has been attending for many generations. Each week at church, there is a collection bin for donations to the soup kitchen. I have donated items in the past, but I wanted to do more to help those less fortunate. So, I called the pastor and asked about volunteer opportunities at the soup kitchen. The pastor got me in touch with the director of the soup kitchen and we arranged a time that I could come in to volunteer.
I got to the soup kitchen on a Saturday morning around 8:30. When I arrived at the soup kitchen, I had no idea what to expect. It was not Thanksgiving or some other major holiday, so I did not anticipate the soup kitchen being that busy. The director greeted me and she introduced me to the rest of the staff. I noticed that there were a few other kids that looked my age. The director explained that the soup kitchen serves two meals over the weekends, lunch and dinner. If the soup kitchen is short-staffed or has low stock of items due to a particularly slow week of donations, then only one meal is served. The soup kitchen extends comfort and hospitality to all on a first come, first serve basis. Before the director said this, I was unsure whether certain persons were given higher priority, such as pregnant women and children.
After a quick tour and orientation, I was assigned to organizing and shelving food products and canned goods. All the donations the church received during the week were still in bags in the large pantry and needed to be sorted and organized. Myself and another high school student were assigned the task of unloading the bags and stocking the shelves. Other people were assigned to setting up the food station and placing chairs and tables in the dining room.
The pantry was bigger than any pantry I had ever seen before. Because there was so many bags, two hours flew by quickly. I could see outside the window many people begin to congregate in front of the doors, waiting to get inside. All appeared to be disheveled and homeless. Most wore torn, dirtied clothes. There were quite a few young mothers were children. Shortly before 11:30, the director requested that we help serve the food. She led us out of the pantry and into the main kitchen area. She told us that we would be serving chicken noodle soup, beans, and canned vegetables. She instructed us to give each person 2 helpings.
At 11:30, the doors opened and the people rushed in. The kitchen had a large window where you could see the people in the dining room. Up close, some of these people looked like they had not eaten for days. It made me sad to see people in such a poor state. In that moment, I was very thankful for all that I had in my life. I was extremely blessed, and the people coming to the soup kitchen were not as lucky. I began to fill plates and bowls of food, feeling good that I was giving back to those less fortunate than I.