Community Dinner--My First Experience

Yesterday I posted that I was looking forward to helping with the community dinner our church did so thought I would report on how it went.  We set up 50 tables with 8 chairs at each in half an hour and all were used except for about four tables.  Not all were filled, but there were a LOT of people.  Most of them arrived before 6 p.m. when it started.  It really was wild.

I wish I had pictures of the kitchen crew busily preparing the plates of food for the servers to take in, all the guests who came and the grocery distribution as the people left but I was too busy!  I could have gotten one while I was waiting the server line to get food for my tables but I didn't think of it then.

In theory, each table was supposed to have one church member at it to sort of be the "host" but I think we were a few short.  Each server was supposed to serve the tables that matched the border color on our name tags, but in reality, that didn't happen.  I'm not sure why--maybe because we had more servers than sections? 

This was my first time doing it so was a bit nervous, not knowing what to expect and trying to remember everything I was supposed to do:  keep their cups full, bring them all their food, clear the junk when they were done, bring them pie, watch for new arrivals and wait on them, greet and smile!  It was fun to serve the people, but I guess I was overly concerned about how long it was taking.  Hopefully, the guests weren't in a hurry--it didn't seem like they were.

Most of the people started clearing out between 7:00 and 7:15.  Some stayed and chatted and some still arrived as late as 7:20 p.m.   Out of curiosity, I checked the grocery giveaway area to see how much was left and there was quite bit.  There were lots of pumpkin pies left too, but the apple were all gone.  I don't know what they'll do with all the leftover food but my guess is it will most likely be donated to a local food bank.  I know I only got one slice of pumpkin pie at the end of the night.

I'm glad I volunteered to help, I sure felt useful and needed and it was great seeing so many new people come in to our church.  I hope they enjoyed the experience and will come back again!

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