Voluntary Service and the Shutdown

Today marks the last day of the partial federal government shutdown, of which I’m sure all of you have heard about and many have felt firsthand in some respect. Beginning October 1, after Congress was unable to come to any sort of agreement and pass a budget, many aspects of the government were shut down and employees placed on furlough. That included the Bureau of Land Management, where I volunteer (or did before the shutdown…). I last stepped foot onto the Bureau of Land Management facility on the first of October for a brief all-employee meeting before biking home, making a brief stop along the way at a donut shop for a delicious maple bacon-topped donut to commemorate the shutdown.

Not being an option to stay at home and mind my own business while I was furloughed, I looked to another option for voluntary service. I decided to go and volunteer at the service placements at which my unit mates volunteered. During the past two weeks, I have volunteered predominately at the Downtown Soup Kitchen and also at the Children’s Lunchbox (a program that prepares lunches for school children and other food for weekends). It has been a joy to see where and with whom my unit mates work on a daily basis.

The serving line at the Downtown Soup Kitchen

The Downtown Soup Kitchen, where I have spent most of my days “off” from work, serves lunch to anywhere from 200 to almost 600 people a day. My work there has involved everything from de-boning turkeys to serving clients bread, soup, and a sandwich to reorganizing the walk-in freezer. Over a time period of only a couple weeks, this place has become like home to me. Coming from the Bureau of Land Management, a very solitary job, to the Soup Kitchen, where there are always people to talk and interact with, has been great. Whether through conversations while slicing torta bread for sandwiches to talking with clients, I have truly enjoyed the opportunity to interact with people and build a whole number of new relationships. I have been made very welcome and the work feels rewarding and life-giving. Another aspect I have enjoyed is the faith emphasis that the Soup Kitchen brings to their mission. While the Bureau of Land Management is a government agency and as a result has no faith component, at the Soup Kitchen, there is a strong emphasis on showing God’s love to all through serving soup. Devotions and prayer are a regular part of the day. In a less organized setting, I have enjoyed having conversations on faith and life matters with a Soup Kitchen employee as we do food pickups at local grocery stores.

A couple of the prep tables in the kitchen

With the government finally back up and running, it is a little sad in some ways to leave the Downtown Soup Kitchen. While I know that there will be plenty of work to do at the Bureau of Land Management, I will miss the people that I have built relationships with at the Soup Kitchen, and the experiences that I have had. In any case, I am grateful for this opportunity to experience another way of serving others and showing God’s love.

On a side note, my last day at the Soup Kitchen, a TV News crew came in for a story about furloughed government workers being affected by the shutdown and how they are responding. Here’s the short article and video from Anchorage Channel 11 News: http://www.ktva.com/home/top-stories/Furloughed-workers-spend-time-volunteering-228121181.html