Soup Kitchen Reflections

Serving at the soup kitchen may have been different for me than most of the class, as I've served at soup kitchens back in Pittsburgh before. Most of the things written about by everyone else I've definitely experienced before, and had those things reaffirmed on Wednesday (the diversity of people, the kindness of the people there, the humanizing element of contact with people that we've talked so much about in class).

I think what I got from our time at the soup kitchen, more than anything, is the sense of community that Meadville has, and just how powerful that community is. I've spent a lot of time in Meadville, for my Bonner work as well as the summer I spent here, and while I feel at home in Meadville, it wasn't until the soup kitchen that I understood just how tight-knit the community is. Thinking about Giant Eagle donating food, the woman that bakes cookies, the volunteers (of all ages!) that come in just to help, etc. made me realize that there was a part of Meadville that I had been missing living up on campus.

I think realizing that a small community can be much more empathetic and invested in each other's success made me realize that many of the food movements that we've discussed in class (local food, co-ops, school lunches, etc.) might work much better in communities like Meadville's rather than in bigger cities. I've always imagined these things as they would apply to places I've lived (big cities), and imagining how they would unfold in Meadville made me a lot more hopeful for their success.

The other revelation that this sense of community offered me is that while our class discussions are always a bit hypothetical or abstract, there are very real people who are very much affected each day by our food culture in this country. I think it made me realize that while I've always applied our class' lessons to my own life, such as shopping at farmer's markets, reading ingredient lists, or thinking critically about health claims, those changes are pretty low-stakes compared to other people's lives. The soup kitchen, I think, added a sense of urgency in my understanding of food culture and the problems within it.