March 21, 2012

Today was the third day of our Spring Break service trip, and so far so good. Time is flying by. I’m having so much more fun than I thought I would be on this trip, especially considering how wary and nervous I was the night before we drove down here. I kept having second thoughts about the trip and what it would be like, if I would get along with all of the other people, and what the service activities would be like in Atlanta. But everything is going so well so far; it’s so much better than I had expected. The other people with me are a huge part of that. I never would have thought I would ever be hanging out with such a diverse group of people all at the same time. Honestly, I kind of love them all already. Anyways, today our group had to split into two groups: one worked in Café 458, the other went to Career Services. I was part of the group that stayed at the café, and it was an interesting experience. We had already worked there on Sunday, so we were basically old pros. Just kidding, not really. Today exposed an entirely new aspect of the place because, as opposed to Sunday when we served the general public, we instead served the people who are a part of the program ACSS runs for homeless people. We helped prepare food, clean the kitchen, serve food, talk with the people there, and other things in general to keep the process moving smoothly and efficiently. Personally, I volunteered for dishwashing. When we were there on Sunday, volunteered to do the behind the scenes work. Both times I neglected to put myself out there for a job that would allow me to interact with customers and the clients. I’ve always been a really shy person; I don’t even open myself up much to parts of my family or some of my friends, let alone strangers in a completely different city than where I’m from. So today it finally hit me that in order to get the most out of this trip, I need to start challenging myself, and forcing myself out of my shell. My resolution for tomorrow is to volunteer for a job that will force me to talk to the clients and share parts of myself with them, and hopefully I’ll learn something from them in return. Another part of today’s service was our invitation to sit in on the A.A. meeting they held in the café. It was seriously such a powerful experience. I felt so privileged to listen to these people’s stories about their lives and obstacles they have faced and overcome. One of the men there said he was kicked out of his house at 19, and that struck me because that’s how old I am right now and I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to be thrown out on the streets. The rest of his story allowed me to gain so much respect for him, as well as all of the other people there, for being strong enough to have the courage to help themselves and conquer their disease. I don’t think I could do what they’ve done and it’s just so amazing to me. I also really liked that two of the men there expressed how happy they were that we were there. One of them said he just enjoys being around young people, and it just sort of eased my conscience to know that we weren’t viewed as intrusive or anything. I really just thought that was a fantastic aspect to the whole day, because it let us see a very personal side to these people and how they’re dealing with their situations. The rest of the day was fun, too. We went to the MLK Memorial and had lunch outside and it was absolutely beautiful out so that was definitely enjoyable. Aaaaaaand free Rita’s! Woop woop! That was a pretty solid part of the day in my opinion. But my five hours of sleep were catching up to me at that point, so I was stoked to come back and take a nap. *Cue Spongebob narrator voice* Two hours later… We had dinner (delicious) and then reflection. Honestly, I really love the reflection part of the day. I love listening to people talk about their experiences and learning more about each person as an individual. And I really hope everyone is as comfortable as I am within this group. I actually like sharing my thoughts and opinions on stuff. I like being a part of the conversation and letting people know what I’m thinking. It’s probably one of my favorite parts of the day because I truly love getting to know all of these people here with me. Overall, awesome day, awesome service, awesome bonding, and awesome reflection. I’m stoked for tomorrow though, and I really hope I get the chance to put myself out there and get a better feel for the clients and how we’re helping them in the ACSS program. K thanks bye. ☺ Danielle

Café 458: Serving food while serving the homeless community

Our first day of service was at Café 458, a nonprofit restaurant affiliated with the Atlanta Self Sufficiency Center (ACSS). The café serves food to the homeless clients enrolled in ACSS programs Monday through Friday, and is open to the public on Sundays. All proceeds and tips collected on Sundays are donated to the program. Although I’ve never served food at a restaurant, I volunteered for the position on Sunday. As we tied on our aprons and learned how to interpret the acronyms on the order sheet, I felt more like I was playing a game than preparing to waitress for real. Then customers started trickling in, and I began to get a bit nervous. What if I spilled hot coffee on someone or messed up all the orders and the table left a bad tip? Then there would be less money going to ACSS because of me… The hosts escorted five people to sit at my first table. I realized just how difficult it is to keep orders straight, especially when they all come with options of adding sides like cheese grits and biscuits (yup, we’re definitely south of the Mason-Dixon line). I felt a bit flustered at first, but one of the customers at the tables was a director on the ACSS board and she was very inquisitive about Alternative Breaks and supportive of our group. I immediately felt much more at ease. It began to hit me that it didn’t matter if small aspects of the operation didn’t run perfectly. The overall mission of ACSS is to provide career and other services to the homeless so they can become self-sufficient and eventually be able to support themselves. As long we were there and encouraging people to donate to the mission, we were contributing to the cause. At each table I served, I explained that I was a volunteer and that all tips and proceeds went toward this cause. It was really heartwarming to see people leave 30% tips to contribute to this cause that is much larger than any of us. I enjoyed being a part of this larger mission, but it still felt foreign and romanticized since we hadn’t interacted with any of the homeless clients. Today, (Tuesday) we returned to the restaurant, but it was an entirely different atmosphere. We worked with a different set of volunteers and actually helped cook the food for the 30-something ACSS clients who came in to eat at 11 a.m. Before the clients arrived, I was again nervous, but for different reasons entirely. I was worried that I wouldn’t know how to interact with the clients or that I would say the wrong thing or accidentally act in a condescending way. Privilege and oppression were salient in my mind as we had spoken about them in last night’s reflection. Was it arrogant of me to think that I would make a difference by serving one meal to people who struggle with food insecurity? I’ve never had a day go by in my life where I’ve had to wonder if there would be dinner on the table. How would I be able to relate? Although I was ashamed to feel this way, I also admit I was scared. I knew that these clients were not only homeless, but dealt with mental or physical disabilities that would prevent them from working for long periods of time. I didn’t know what these disabilities would look like. I wondered if it were a possibility that a client would become violent or angry at me. Would they resent me for the position of privilege I have in terms of abilities? At 11 a.m. on the dot, clients began to enter the café. I was shocked at how they looked. I had imagined dirty, grungy individuals with torn clothing. But most were wearing clean, nice clothes and some even had additional possessions such as cell phones or backpacks. I served two tables and all of the clients were extremely friendly and grateful. I did not feel awkward or uncomfortable, as I had suspected I would. They weren’t scary. They weren’t violent. They were just people. People who life had dealt an unfortunate hand, but who were able to pick themselves up, brush themselves off and find a way to keep on making it through the day. They were gracious and kind, and above all, courageous. Several of the clients were talking openly and honestly with others about their situation, but without harping on their hardships. One man in particular stood out to me. He looked like me; if I saw him walking on the street, I wouldn’t think we were so different. When I served him his food, he smiled, and said “thank you.” I heard him laughing and chatting with others at his table with charisma and confidence. But he had once lost everything; his business, his family and his house. He considered taking his own life and even attempted it. He spoke of his gratefulness to be alive. He was sitting there, telling a complete stranger about the most vulnerable moments he’d endured and how he had very little on this earth, but it was enough to motivate him. And I thought to myself, wow, this man is braver than I have ever been. He’s dealt with hardship and extreme circumstances, but he’s not embarrassed of himself. He openly admits who he is and where he has struggled, and is only trying to move forward and break the cycle. I think that’s one of the most admirable qualities in a person--to know that you’re not perfect and that your life isn’t perfect, but to be able to say, “Hey, this is who I am and where I’ve been. I’m not ashamed of myself.” We can only grow once we accept ourselves, completely, as we are in this very moment. It’s ok to struggle; we learn from it and always come away from the situation with more knowledge than we had previously. Then with humility and compassion, we can share the lessons we’ve learned with others. We can still be warm and open with others, even when it’s terrifying because we’re at risk to get hurt. That’s what I learned from a kind middle-aged man with no house, no money, and no food. Melissa Major

Monday March 19, 2012

Today’s service activity was gardening for the Atlanta Community Food Bank. When I say gardening, I mean picking weeds out of plots that will eventually turn into gardens. Our job at first seemed to have little worth in the overall issue of hunger and homelessness because most of us simply weeded plots for four hours. The point was to prep the gardens for planting in order to grow food for the food bank. The pollen count was high, the sun was hot, and the weeds seemed endless. Some of us may have been wondering if our service was actually making a difference on the issue of urban poverty, but at the time I did not think too deeply into the magnitude of our impact and instead found peace in the warmth and nature. It was later after group reflection that I really began to think about our purpose. Practically no one who will actually benefit from the food bank will have any idea that a group of 14 members of the University of Maryland spent hours weeding the garden, but does that mean we had no impact? Gardens need to be weeded before new plants are planted in order to ensure a sustainable environment for optimal growth. Once rid of weeds, the seeds in the garden share the resources of water, soil, and oxygen in order to cooperatively grow and live. Some weeds in the garden were more deeply rooted than others and required extra force on my part to uplift them and I realized that all weeds, or barriers, are of different caliber and have different effects. The weeds in our communities and societies are often so deeply rooted that the force needed to uproot them seems impossible. Oppression is one of the deepest-rooted weeds. This weed interferes with the access to all of the resources needed for growth and life. Weeding the gardens taught me that although the weeds seemed endless, my impact was to relieve some of the oppression that would have inhibited the growth of the plants. There will always be weeds in our communities and environments, but it is important to understand that wherever we are planted dictates the weeds that surround us. This was a learning experience for me and helped me to understand privilege versus oppression. I am excited to spread my knowledge and continue being a force in uprooting weeds in communities in order to enable equal opportunities for life and growth.

Café 458... Finally Interacting with the Target Population

I definitely started this trip with several preconceived ideas about the homeless population in general. I can say I was definitely not the only one who felt anxious or nervous about our interaction with the homeless clients. The fear of saying the wrong thing, giving off the wrong vibe during our interactions was something that we all dealt with in some way or another. Today was much of a slower day at Café 458; we were only serving from 11:00 A.M to 12:00 P.M. All the clients came in at the same time, and I think it was great that I had the chance to dive in right away and get to interacting with the client by taking their orders.The first few people who walked through the doors went straight for the three tables that I was assigned, so there was not much time for me to stand around and be nervous. Thankfully, everyone was very kind and appreciated what we were doing for them. I was put to ease right away. I wish that I had the chance to conversate with them in a deeper level just to get to know them on a more personal level. But today through reflection with the other participants, I learned that giving a bit about yourself could also help set off those conversations that could be meaningful to both parties. We got to hear some of those stories while attending a Alcoholic Anonymous meeting. Some of the clients that we served were also part of this group. This experience was definitely brand new for me, I did not know much about the concept of AA and it was great to see how they operated. It felt great to hear the testimonies of people who had clearly been at the lowest point in their lives, who rose up and conquer this addiction that they have struggled with for many years. Several of them mentioned that they had to relearn how to be social, how to form relationships with others, because this is something that they lost while either being in the street, and while going through this self-destructing phase. This particular gentleman mentioned how after getting off the streets and getting his own apartment he could not get himself to sleep on his bed because he was so used to sleeping on the floor. Often we are so quick to judge people who are on the streets and question why they can't just get a job and get themselves together. We don't realize that it is often much more complex then it seems. It takes more then just one's willingness to change someone's attitude and self-identify. This people often need to go through a transformation within themselves to understand their worth and what they have to contribute to society in gender, in order for them to fully recover. And recovery is not something that they do at once and stop working on, it is a lifelong struggle that they have to face for the rest of their life. After our service we had lunch at the Martin Luther King Memorial, which was a great way to end our service day.

Starting is the Hardest Part

Hey party people…it’s your hosts for the evening: @TanTheMan91 and DJYungZ, commentating on the possibly longest, most exhausting ride we’ve ever been on (as we write, Than rolls over onto a thumb tack….perf). To be honest, the roughest part of the drive was getting out of DC. The po-lice were on every block from here to Southeast on account of the marathon. Best of all, Julie got lost 20 minutes into the trip. But what a champ, she drove the whole 12 hours, over 600 miles. Dayum. The hardest leg of the drive was North Carolina: we fell asleep, woke up, and were STILL there. If it weren’t for the film of pollen blanketing the entire city, we would have kissed the ground when we finally got to Atlanta. Driving along I-85, we finally saw the city of Atlanta over the horizon. To say that the sight was beautiful is an understatement; it is something you have to see for yourself. We’re looking forward to getting to know everybody better this week. We have a feeling that there are a lot of levels to people in this group and we have only just skimmed the surface. We also hope to learn about ourselves through our learning about the homeless community in Atlanta. Tomorrow is our first day of service at the Atlanta Center for Self Sufficiency’s Café 458, and to say we’re pumped is an understatement. It’s been a long day to say the least, so for now it’s time to peace out girl scouts. We will catch you cool kids on the flip side, and stay tuned for more updates on the most bomb diggity AB trip this side of Appalachia. Stay classy, Nicole and Than

Rolling into A-Town: March 18, 2012

When I was preparing for my AB trip to Atlanta back in College Park, it was fair to say I was in a mixed state of emotions. I was excited. I was going to spend my sophomore spring break doing something new and worthwhile, in contrast in last year's, which I spent at home sleeping and relaxing (which is nice however...). I was going to be exploring a new city in an entire region of the country I've never been to before. However, I was also anxious. I would be spending an entire week with fellow students I had not met before, and get to know them through working and bonding together. I would say after our first full day in Atlanta, that anxiety has faded and been turned into appreciation.
Our first day in town, we were able to volunteer at Cafe 458. This was not only a great experience, but an eye-opening one that also prompted me to question things. I got to perform a variety of duties, including sweeping the sidewalks, organizing and cleaning tables, marketing for the restaurant, and going out on the street and giving out discount coupons. The last thing was probably my favorite duty, but difficult at the same time. I got to observe the layout of downtown Atlanta, as well as experience the church-going culture of the metropolitan city on a Sunday. I also was exposed to other things, like people smoking marijuana in the middle of the street and homeless people asking for money. Definitely one of the hardest experiences of the day was when someone refused a coupon, but a homeless person inquired about the restaurant after hearing me. After telling him the goals of the nonprofit restaurant, he talked about how hungry he was and if he could get a meal at Cafe 458 that day. Reluctantly, Danielle and I had to break it to him that they did not serve for free on Sundays.
The day ended on a high note for me after playing Apples to Apples with the group and heading to reflection. After a long day of serving, playing basketball, and surviving sleep deprivation, I completely forgot about the day's obstacles when we sat down and learning more than we have yet about all of each other. That makes me more excited than I have before about the progress of our trip- not only are we learning more about hunger and homelessness in this urban area, but we will be learning more about each other each day.

Welcome!

Welcome to the official blog for the Alternative Spring Break trip to Atlanta GA. Our group will spend a week (from March 17-24) in Atlanta serving at organizations devoted to relieving hunger and homelessness. Some of the organizations include Gateway Center, Atlanta Center for Self-Sufficiency, and Atlanta Community Food Bank. Throughout the trip the whole group will take turns updating the blog with their thoughts and reactions to what we experience. We are looking forward to the trip in the upcoming weeks. Check back for more of the details as the trip approaches.

Check out some of these links:
Gateway Center Homepage
ACSS Homepage
Atlanta Community Food Bank

-Julie