What Are Soup Kitchens Like?

While soup kitchens across the country have different ways of operating, their main goals are the same. Feed the homeless and poor. To give you an idea of what it's like to volunteer there, I'll show you a normal day.

In many ways, working at a soup kitchen is like working at a restaurant or a school cafeteria. You spend time preparing food, you serve it, and then you clean up afterwards. At my local soup kitchen, all the fuss starts at about 9am. As I'm not a morning person, I don't know much about what goes on at that time, but at 10, when I come in, soup is slowly cooking on the burners, food is in the oven, and people are busy getting other food prepared.

Preparation: We put on aprons, wash our hands, and put on gloves. There are no hairnets here, but I'm sure there are at other places.
10:00 - 12:00: There is a lot of cold food to be prepared to serve. Things like applesauce and coleslaw are put in cups or containers, pies and bread are put on plates, and other food is prepared. No people are allowed to come in until 12, when everything is prepared, ready, and out for the taking. We sometimes make sandwiches and other stuff like that. Most of the food, like casseroles, are made by people and brought in. We fill up pitchers of ice water and put them on the tables with cups. We also sometimes make bags of leftovers from a previous day for the people to take with them
12:00 - 1:00: The people come in and we supervise, putting more food up on the ledge as it is taken. It's really fast paced work! The food goes quickly and needs to be replaced quickly so the line can continue moving and everyone can get finished by 1:00. At around 12:30, someone is put on dessert duty and gives things like doughnuts and cake as dessert as the people finish with their dinner.
1:00 - ?: After everyone leaves, we clean up. Stacking chairs, washing dishes, sweeping, and wiping down tables. It's not too hard at all.

As you can see, it's not that hard of a job, and the rewards are great. You aren't paid with money, but with the smiles and thank yous of every person who receives food that you helped prepare, and the courtesy and compassion you're willing to give.