SLP: Denver Rescue Mission: Sarah Brehm

On May 1st, I went to the Denver Rescue Mission in downtown Denver to prepare meals for both the staff and 250 local homeless people along with Emily from our class. While this experience was tiresome and messy, it was also a wonderful opportunity to make direct contact with people who are either homeless themselves, have at one point been homeless, or work directly with the homeless every day.
When we first arrived, we were welcomed with warm greetings and I felt a general feeling of gratitude that we were there. Volunteers and staff were smiling at us and coming up to us to personally introduce themselves. The building was pretty run-down, but you could tell that a lot of people have been there for relief. A man named Nick came and greeted us. He first introduced himself and thanked us for coming, then asked us about our backgrounds and what we were studying in school. After our brief introductions, he asked us to help prepare the salad for the staff members, which would later be used to feed the two hundred and fifty homeless people waiting in a line outside. We opened about thirty bags of lettuce that had been donated by a local grocery store, and then we chopped tomatoes to put into the salad. While we were cutting the tomatoes, he asked me if I would be in charge of getting the deserts prepared. I cut pound cakes into slices and then set them out on a tray that was to be served with Hershey’s syrup and ice cream donated by Dairy Queen. The staff members got so excited about old, faulty ice cream products, which made me realize how much I take good food for granted! After the staff members were served, I was in charge of preparing cakes and other desserts, donated by local grocery stores, for the larger group that would be coming in. I ended up cutting about five cakes and putting them onto trays and putting them out in a buffet style line. By this time, our hour and a half was up, and it was time to go, but prepared a lot of food in an hour and a half, and also got to speak with some of the staff members about their personal experiences working at Denver Rescue Mission.
While it was a short period of time to work, I ended up learning a lot, both by the tasks I did as well as the conversations I had with some of the staff members. While we were chopping up vegetables, the staff members would constantly joke with us and keep conversation, which made us feel a lot more comfortable because I hate awkward silence. I also got the chance to speak one-on-one with Nick, which gave me a little bit more insight into what the Mission is all about. He explained to me that he himself is an alcoholic and has been at the Mission for 75 days. The alcohol recovery program is a faith-based, non-profit organization in which the members are required to work at the Mission in order to better their community and serve people just like them. He told me that his life has been totally turned around, and he absolutely loves what he does. He said it gives him an escape from the addictive life he used to have, and feels that he is finally doing something proactive with his life. It was good for me because it made me realize how much I take for granted the resources and the things I have in my own life. It realized that when I have a health problem, I simply go to the doctor’s office; if I am hungry, I walk to my refrigerator. The people that I got to work with made me realize that in a matter of minutes, your life can go from perfectly normal to completely disastrous. However, it also gave me hope for the homeless, because these people’s lives have been completely turned around as a result of this small organization in downtown Denver. I think that they are so successful because they have wonderful staff who have been in the shoes of the people that come there, and they are able to relate with them in that way. Also, their organization and methods of preparation were very efficient. Overall, what I took away the most from this experience was that the homeless are truly just like us. Though they may have fewer resources, we all have the same desire to have a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs, and that places like the Denver Rescue Mission are truly wonderful organizations that can help people feel like they are valued and significant in our society.