[Community-Service] Where's The Talent?

Sat Nov 12 19:30:04 UTC 2022

On Thu, Nov 10, 2022 at 5:08 PM Jeanetta price via Community-Service <
community-service at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Thank you for sharing Shelley! I love your story of how you serve.  Simply
> Amazing!!
>
> *Jeanetta Price, M. Ed. *
>
> *Mauney & Associates Home Study Contractor*
>
> *Phone: 409-344-1005 *
>
>
> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:  This e-mail message, including any attachments,
> is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain
> confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use,
> disclosure or distribution is prohibited.  If you are not the intended
> recipient, please contact the sender by reply-e-mail and destroy all copies
> of the original message.
>
> ****Privacy Notice*:  Privacy is important to us!  PII (Personally
> Identifiable Information) such as an SSN, DOB as well as any DFPS case
> related information via email is strictly prohibited.   Do not send any PII
> to this email address without email security/encryption enabled!
>
>
>
> On Nov 10, 2022, at 3:43 PM, Maggie Stringer via Community-Service <
> community-service at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> 
>
> It’s National Novel Writing month! And we want to acknowledge dedicated
> volunteers that enjoy the art of writing, those who are aspiring to become
> an author, and the talented men and women who are already published!
>
>
>
> You already know the topic, COMMUNITY SERVICE!
>
> Write a short or long piece, it can be fictional or non. Just make it your
> own!
>
> You write it, and we’ll share it!
>
>
>
> Here’s our first piece written by
>
> Shelley J. Alongi
>
>
>
> THE KITCHEN QUEEN
>
> One of my dreams in life till recently has been to own a restaurant. It is
> through the wonderful opportunities over the years volunteering in kitchens
> that I have learned just how much work that can be. I have volunteered over
> the last ten to twenty years for some great projects centering around the
> kitchen. These opportunities surround food and meeting people. No matter
> how large or small the task, the experience has always been rewarding. The
> kitchen fits me to a Tee. I've cooked in California, Mississippi, and north
> Texas.
>
>
>
> I could never dream up in a million years as a writer of novels and
> articles the opportunities presented to me for volunteering in my local
> community in north Texas. Seven years ago, when I moved to this small town,
> I would not have imagined that I could cook in a kitchen once every two
> weeks as a volunteer. I love cooking.  I had volunteered as a cook before
> at a California university when I lived there making 80 hamburgers a week
> for a local Christian club whose mission was to feed people and present the
> gospel. I had a food handler's card and got it with some trepidation on the
> part of officials but everything worked out fine. Moving to north Texas,
> leaving my steady job that wasn't covering my high rent I relocated here at
> the urging of friends from childhood and found this local church two blocks
> from where I ended up living. Every two weeks I get to walk to the church
> and turn the lights on in a kitchen where basically I am the queen. Every
> second Tuesday and fourth Saturday of the month I open the refrigerator and
> take out a big pot of prepared beans and warm them up on a stove. I then
> make a big pan of cornbread. The remainder of my job is to clean up the
> kitchen, keep the snack table supplied, and talk to the people who come
> into the kitchen to ask for beans. All around me people talk and joke,
> making a bevy of crowd noises. Imagine a 50 by 30 room full of tables and
> chairs and people spread out comfortably filling out papers in order to
> receive personal care items. People using walkers and scooters, in addition
> to small children, all inhabit the same space talking to each other, phones
> ringing, laughter drifting across the room. At the table where people sign
> in, the clients update the workers on their personal lives.
>
>
>
> Several years before I moved to north Texas a church for which I would
> eventually play piano on Sundays and direct the choir all for pay dreamed
> up a program where people from the community who are looking for work or
> just trying to make ends meet would come in and receive twelve personal
> care items every thirty days: toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoo, soap, many
> things you might consider a "personal care" item. You can imagine that
> these items are not too low cost in some instances, especially at the
> current rates of inflation. This program is set up by one local church and
> supplements the food bank which is a joint effort of other churches. This
> program has been in operation under the care of six to eight people who
> show up twice a month to greet people, sign them in, listen to their prayer
> requests and dramas and conduct conversations.
>
>
>
> When I first arrived at the church as their newly minted pianist I heard
> about this opportunity and knew it was for me. After a year of serving as a
> table worker I learned that they needed someone in the kitchen. They had a
> man in the kitchen, but he was required to do double duty as an order
> filler. What they needed was someone to staff the kitchen for the entire
> three-hour time slot on each day the church was open for this project. They
> considered hiring someone. I knew this was the perfect volunteer space for
> me. It was the perfect size and at the perfect time each week. I told the
> organizers I would take on the job and haven't looked back for three
> years.
>
>
>
> Besides cooking for the university club, I had definitely acquired some
> kitchen skills on a gargantuan level before moving to north Texas. After
> hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast states of Mississippi, Alabama
> and Louisiana on August 29, 2005, I went on a trip with the church I
> attended at the time to Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi and served meals to
> people who were rebuilding their houses. There were some amazing stories I
> remember from that experience. One man whose family owned two houses on
> separate sides of the railroad tracks had lost both in the storm. During
> dinner one night we learned that a family who was not formally acquainted
> with this man had lived in one of the houses. Two families who
> independently had experienced loss and who had benefited from the property
> owned by one of them were seated at the same table, both were involved in
> restoring separate properties not related to those houses. They may never
> have met without such a tragedy to bring them together.
>
>
>
> Hundreds of cups of coffee and conversations brought a community together.
> One man I met who worked on oil rigs on the Gulf coast and I keep
> responding to the phrase "that's amazing." We heard that phrase so much
> that we applied it to everything we said. We ended our conversations no
> matter the subject with "that's amazing."
>
>
>
> My first experience in Mississippi almost directly after getting off the
> plane was serving dinner out of ice-chest sized serving pots called
> cumbrous. Imagine serving food out of your 24-can picnic cooler and you
> will have a small idea of the size and shape of the serving pans. Imagine
> washing those in huge sinks full of hot, soapy water.
>
>
>
> Seventeen years later, after much more experience cooking for church
> potlucks, planning food for parties and such, I found myself here in this
> small town with the perfect-sized kitchen. There are lots of stories to be
> told about this place. After several years of serving one particular
> client, we learned that she has recently become engaged to a local town
> celebrity. We've talked to people who have lost friends and family members
> to diseases and death. The passage of time strengthens bonds, and teaches
> me their names. When I sold coffee and donuts as a volunteer in California,
> an undertaking that helped buy the food for the hamburger feed I cooked
> for, I learned to ask repeat customers their names. Here, in this place, I
> have learned that some of those who come in for items live near me or even
> across the street. We are all connected to each other in some way,
> especially in this small town.
>
>
>
> One particular woman with a large personality comes into my kitchen and
> asks for meat in the beans. She shows up and I say: "Are you ready for
> beans?"
>
> "Yes," she says. "Give me some meat."
>
> I tell her that I can't always promise that meat will be in the beans.
> There are a million different ways to make the standard beans with ham.
> Some people include more meat than others. No matter the amount of meat in
> the beans, I never fail to get a compliment to pass along to the lady in
> the church who prepares them each time. Rarely do we have left overs. I
> always feel happy that I'm not responsible for making the beans that way. I
> don't have to worry about whether someone makes the beans the way they like
> them. I only serve them. Everyone is always grateful for the meal, even the
> lady who asks for meat.
>
>
>
> We have people who come just to eat our beans. Sometimes people say they
> have already eaten before coming to the church so they take them home with
> them. I'm all about making sure people eat.
>
>
>
> The operation at the local church here isn't quite as huge as the one in
> Mississippi was so many years ago, but it is consistent and sometimes
> exhausting. It is ultimately rewarding, especially when I consider that I
> uprooted myself from my home in California and moved here not quite sure
> where I would end up. This opportunity found me and fits my love and
> passion perfectly. I've decided that I probably don't really want to cook
> for a restaurant every day of the week, but this volunteer opportunity has
> taught me that and also gives me a feeling of helping my local community
> and participating in an effort that brings a lot of interaction and
> pleasure to me. We're all out to help each other and if I can be a cog in
> the wheel that makes this operation successful then I am very happy, indeed.
>
>
> #NOVELWRITINGMONTH
>
> #COMMUNITYSERVICEDIVISION
>
>
> Maggie Stringer
> Phone: (443) 750-0070
> Email: ravensfan784 at gmail.com
> Community Service Facebook Page
> <https://www.facebook.com/CommunityServiceDivision/>
> “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra."
> _______________________________________________
> Community-Service mailing list
> Community-Service at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/community-service_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Community-Service:
>
>
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/community-service_nfbnet.org/price.jeanetta%40gmail.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Community-Service mailing list
> Community-Service at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/community-service_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Community-Service:
>
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/community-service_nfbnet.org/kanyaharrison46%40gmail.com
>
That’s amazing awesome work
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/community-service_nfbnet.org/attachments/20221112/d24f4c71/attachment.html>