On Finding Meaningful Service, Together

At 6:25am on a Thursday morning earlier this month, my son Henry and I drove to Worcester and pulled into the parking lot of St. Francis Xavier Center. We didn’t expect there to be police parked in front of the center, or the throngs of hungry people waiting to get into the food line. Half awake, and not knowing what to expect, we wove our way through the crowd to get inside and immediately asked someone where volunteers should go.

As an organization working to literally feed people, St. John’s Food for the Poor Program, which runs St. Francis Xavier Center, doesn’t have a process or structure to training. We didn’t get an orientation, watch a video, or have a volunteer coordinator walk us through expectations. We just showed up. When we said we were there to help, someone pointed to the aprons and told us to each grab one and then to get gloves on. Then we found a group of people who were preparing food, and joined them to figure out how we could be helpful. Read more at https://chapmaned.substack.com/p/on-finding-meaningful-service-together