Getting Down to Business

After all of our weekend fun, we started with some serious mission projects Monday morning, bright and early at 5:30 a.m. at "Midnight Mission". It's a community center on Skid Row that provides breakfast for anyone in need. We put on gloves and aprons, got behind the counter, and served up food for more than 700 men and women, mostly adults, of all ethnicities. It was the fastest, most efficient breakfast I've ever experienced, with all of them coming through line, eating, and leaving the dining room within about an hour.

After cleaning up there, we headed to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and sat through an orientation session with the 40+ other teenagers that were there to volunteer from other schools. Then they sent us to a large room where we were to sort huge boxes of food that had been donated by local grocery stores and people with kind hearts and huge wallets. We were given directions and, suddenly, the whole room swarmed with people running from the fridge, to the pantry, to sorting out meat, to weighing trash cans of the expired food that we had to throw out. All of a sudden, all of these strangers became one big team.

We got back to the CSM building for lunch and, apparently, some found more important things to do...

In the afternoon, we headed out to Wyvernwood Apartments again to hang out with the kids. We played soccer, (while reminding them NOT to say certain words), more freeze tag, ("without pushing guys!!"), and some follow-the-leader...("where did you learn to do THAT??") We wonder what kinds of lifestyles they go home to, among older siblings and parents gone to work. The guys are a tougher group than expected for 9-12 year olds, but the girls are sweet, and all of them are starting to warm up to us...

Jasmine with puppy on left, our host Sarah in the middle,
and some of the younger set of kids

We ended the day on Chinese food at Jade Wok, a cute, little restaurant nearby, and came home to debrief about the day's events and engage in our new group hobby, listening to and critiquing songs from The Sing-Off.  =)