St. John’s Bread and Life

With the 11th grade service theme of hunger in the city, helping to serve meals at St. John’s Bread and Life soup kitchen in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn felt like truly the most vital and direct way to be combating the increasingly prevelent issue of hunger in New York. Though the physical tasks of serving people from all walks of life- both young and old- were mundane actions, the results of those actions felt so vital–seeing the recipients of the food enjoying their meals- that the acts themselves felt so inhernetly necessary, no matter how small. Seeing the faces of the people as they walked by and recieved their food put my own life, my own concerns into perpective. The prevelence of the issue they were facing–not even having enough food to eat-was so immedate. Suddenly the issues of my own life seemed so trivial in comparison. Of what consequence is my failing something as unnecessary as a math test, really, when there are people all around me who can’t afford the basic necessities of life? I felt the most gratified to have had a chance to feel like we were really helping people, in any meager way possible, and being able to reimagine my own existence felt like rewarding side effect of the whole experience, one in which I now feel so lucky to have taken part.

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