Food Distributions with the Church of the Nazarene

We've been hopping on the #7 bus pretty frequently the past few days, and we've been starting to form some strong relationship with the great people who run a food distribution out of the Church of the Nazarene in Mid City. The church partners with the San Diego Coalition for the Homeless (more about them in a later post), and also runs food distribution lines on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, as well as hosting a government-sponsored distribution on the first Friday of every month. Our first experience was with the government distribution, since it had been bumped back a week due to New Year's. These Friday distributions are pretty hectic, since all of the food must be sorted into bags by volunteers, then handed out to over four hundred people who have been waiting from as early as 3 a.m. With all of this craziness, we were constantly impressed by the atmosphere: the volunteers make it a priority to ensure that everyone who comes through the line gets a friendly greeting. Father John told us that the government distributions can sometimes be problematic: since the volunteers must give everyone a certain amount of food, they can't regulate it so that everyone in the line gets something.

Since Friday, we've been back a couple of times to help with the regular distributions, which are a lot calmer. For these distributions, the church receives donations from local supermarkets and even KFC. Fresh produce is available through a program called Fresh Rescue, which donates perishable goods that have passed their shelf date but are still usable. I got to hand out the biggest grapefruit I've ever seen (it was so big you needed to hands to grab it!). From watching people come through, I learned that one big problem they face is finding a way to carry all the food. Since people often walk a long way to get to the church, many bring carts or strollers to hold the food, but for those without these amenities transportation can be an issue.

Over the last week, we've enjoyed getting to know our fellow volunteers. We learned that many are clients of the distribution line themselves who have decided to give back by helping out their friends and neighbors. Others were required to do community service at the church, but enjoyed the experience so much they decided to keep coming back. We were constantly entertained (and startled) by our new friend Hien, who enjoys telling jokes and sneaking up behind people and barking. I think he's gotten all of us at least once and will no doubt continue to scare the crap out of us on future occasions.