Kitchen Shift at Project Angel Heart
The night started with a frazzled drive to the kitchen of Project Angel Heart. A car had been borrowed, and directions map quested in a hurry. We hit the road, only to sit in traffic and hit every red light possible. Despite the terrible luck driving, we made it to the kitchen only five minutes late. We walked into the front office and a wildly welcoming woman stood up from her desk. She greeted us with great eagerness and then took us right to where we were supposed to be. We made it to the kitchen and met our new boss, Summer. She handed us matching, flowery aprons, and some most unattractive hats to wear.
Dressed appropriately, and with clean hands, we were given our first task. Putting hamburger buns in plastic bags. One bun. In one bag. Thrilling. We bagged two monstrous boxes of buns, joking amongst ourselves and laughing. The last bun found a new home in a plastic bag, and we all let out a sigh of relief.
Summer came over to investigate our work. She approved, and then extended an invitation to “pita land” to us. “Pita land.” Didn’t sound that bad, but the way everybody rolled their eyes lead one to think of it as a rather hellish task. We were guided to the walk-in refrigerator. Four huge boxes of pita met our eyes. The sight of the endless pita to be bagged made it clear why so many eyes had rolled at the mention of “pita land.”
We wheeled the pita over to our distant table and began bagging. And we kept bagging. One pita. In one bag. For what seemed like an interminable amount of time. After what seemed like an eternity, we completed our task. We then moved on to chopping peppers. This new job contained the thrill of wielding a sharp object.
By the time that was done, it was time for us to clean up. We wiped down tables, cleaned out what appeared to be an overused coffee maker and detangled a mess of aprons fresh from the drier. It took about four people working diligently to deal with the mess of aprons that had emerged from the drier. It wasn’t until these final tasks that we started to talk with the other volunteers and employees. Simple, yet amusing conversation was had. Who knew that watching the show Scrubs was considered a guilty pleasure? We finished our tasks and wished everybody a good night. They in turn thanked us for helping out and doing the jobs that nobody else wanted, but that needed to get done. It wasn’t until that moment that I felt like I had helped. For the three hours that I bagged and chopped, it didn’t register that I was helping to feed people. I was preparing food for people with life threatening diseases. Food for people who needed it in order to remain alive. Despite the boredom that I had experienced periodically throughout the night, I felt like it was time well spent.