A Caffeinating Experience

Hi everyone! I'm Sarah Bana and I'm a 2nd year Econ major at UCI. This is my first time doing Alternative Break and I have really enjoyed the experience so far.

Yesterday, we left our hostel at 6:40am in the rain to serve! We went to the Glide Memorial Church a few blocks away from our hostel, still in the Tenderloin, to serve breakfast. Glide Memorial Church is the ONLY place in San Francisco that serves 3 meals a day, every day of the year. Everyone knows about the Glide tradition, and for breakfast that morning, we served around 400 people with a hot breakfast of oatmeal, cottage cheese, fruit, bread, pastries and coffee. Many of us were putting the food on the trays, which was an unique experience because of the regimented way we learned to serve. I put napkins on every tray and the Glide employee, Maurine piled on the oatmeal as my friend Delia loaded on the cottage cheese, Stephanie added a banana, and Anna complimented the meal with a pastry. We got a feel for the audience we were serving and helped clean up the area for the next meal.

Later in the day, we had the opportunity to serve meals again at Glide - this time with different jobs. Since there were a lot of volunteers for dinner (a college from Ohio was also on their alt break and was working with us), there wasn't as much to do for each individual. I got to work "on the floor" this time, and refilled the coffee pitchers for every table. It was really fun, serving all these people with something I certainly enjoy drinking. It was kinda funny because one man asked me for a few extra packets of sugar. I found some sugar that no one was using and gave it to him, saying "I like my coffee sweetened too!" He chuckled and asked me how much coffee I drink regularly. I told him that I usually got a cup every morning before school. We spoke for a few minutes and we shook hands - his name is Oscar. Oscar asked me where I went to school and I responded, UC Irvine. He pointed to his head, and asked me if I was smart. I chuckled, and he told me "you can do anything and you will succeed."

"You can do anything and you will succeed."

This confidence in my thoughts, my actions... confidence in me gave me a lot of confidence in him. Oscar had showed me that it doesn't take wealth to make someone's day. It takes a good heart and a good outlook on life despite extenuating circumstances.

Oscar is just like me. He likes his coffee sweetened and he drinks a lot of it. He taught me that homeless people are like everyone else... just people. And this week, we're learning to bring warmth to them- both personally and with coffee.