End of Day 2

Winding down back at Christ Church Cathedral right now. Can't believe it's the same day as when we woke up! 5:15 was pretty early for us, but we trudged out of beds and into our clothes without too much complaint (perhaps too tired to complain?). We took the 6am train to Palmer Episcopal Church, where an organization called The Way Station has been operating for over 40 years. This group serves breakfast to about 350 homeless men and women every weekday, and today we had the opportunity to help make that happen. Some of us prepared food in the kitchen, some prepared hygienic giveaway bags, and others sorted mail (they actually have a great program where participants may use the church address as their own for mail correspondence, making it easier to take advantage of social programs in the area). We had only been working for a couple of hours when the rain came down, and it poured for several hours, past when we were finished. It put a bit of a kink in our day plans, but since we had gotten up so early, it turns out most people were happy to rest and nap back at the cathedral till lunch. I definitely crashed out for an hour--it was lovely.

After making sandwiches for our lunch, we went to the Houston Area Food Bank, where we worked a 4 hour shift inspecting donated food. We lined up along a conveyer belt and checked expiration dates and packaging to be sure that the food being sold was up to health standards. At the end of our shift, we learned--much to our surprise--that, along with the other volunteers, we had moved 10,000 pounds of food that day, amounting to 8,000 meals for low-income families. That's quite a haul! Amazing that it didn't even feel like too much labor.

For dinner we walked down to Niko Niko, a Greek restaurant in downtown Houston. We ate wraps, then came back to the cathedral where we've been relaxing and are now watching the great epic, The Land Before Time. I think tonight might be an earlyish bedtime, as I think we're still reeling from our early morning. Thankfully, we get to "sleep in" till 8 tomorrow!

~Matt

PS - No pictures of us working yet! Didn't want to make a photo-op out of serving breakfast, and the Food Bank made us giev up our phones and cameras before going into the warehouse. Still, a few pics here and there:

Dinner at Niko Niko

Breakfast of champions!

Main rec room at the cathedral