Today brought another day of mission work and new experiences for the Washington DC team. One of the two teams went to Martha's Table, an organization that is made up of different programs: A children's program providing nutritious meals, supervised learning and literacy activities; a mobile soup kitchen that feeds many hungry and homeless people around DC and a clothing center that provides free and low cost clothing and other necessities to those in need. Our group worked on a couple different projects today. They packaged up prepared sandwiches to be put into lunch bags and given out as a part of the mobile soup kitchen. Then they used food purchased through the capital area food bank (where one of groups worked on Tuesday) to make up large bags of food capable of feeding a family of 4 for one week. These bags are distributed often in the later part of each month, because many homeless and hungry individuals and families simply don't have enough income to pay all their bills and buy enough food to get them between pay days.
The second team went back to Elder Buddies, where the other team worked earlier this week. We had a rough start to our day with a very confusing and unhelpful orientation (for 2 hours!!!), but once we actually got going with our service work, we felt productive. We worked with a man named Mr. T. He is 92 years old and struggling with dementia and other health problems. Because of his physical and mental limitations, he has been unable to keep up with his home and was in danger of being evicted because of many fire hazards. Our work today was difficult, emotionally and physically. We were told that the work we did to rid his apartment of many bags of garbage and rearranging furniture will hopefully lead to him being able to remain in his home and for that we feel good. What we did was just a start, more work is needed by additional volunteers in the next weeks. Mr T. had many great stories to share with us about his life in the Philippines, his time in WWII and professionally as a professor of civil defense.
3/4 of the way through our mission week, we have a new understanding of how easy it is to become homeless without a safety net of needed support around you. We have met and worked with some that are homeless and others that are on the verge. We have seen the challenges that many people face in their lives, challenges that seem unbearable to us. It is amazing how human the 'other' person becomes when you work along side them and hear their stories.
Later in the day we were able to meet with some of the staff of Senator Debbie Stabenow. Gia and Alex talked to us about Senator Stabenow's educational, professional and political background (see the pictures above). They also shared many of the initiatives that the senator has started and backed that deal with the issues of hunger and homelessness. They were interested to hear of our mission work in DC, as well as our experience with community outreach in Traverse City. Because the senate is currently in session we were unable to meet with her directly. We were given passes to sit in the senate gallery during the session. It was interesting, though we did not have a chance to see much because they were in recess around the time we visited the capital.
In all it was another good day, but exhausting too. Our final day of mission work is tomorrow.
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