Out of the Cold, 2010-2011

John, Mike, Harim from last year.

The Out of the Cold program at Knox Presbyterian Church started again this past Tuesday. We provide hot meals to underprivileged young people (under the age of 26) every Tuesday evening from the beginning of November to the end of April. As well as the dinner we have a food bank where they can grab stuff to take home with them to supplement their groceries for the week. There are also some activities they can do like half-court basketball, there's an old video game console and Darlene runs her sewing table were kids can do some crafts or mend their clothes. Bill will start his hair dying clinic at some point too. We even have a three lanes of 5-pin bowling that we open every now and then.

For me, I help with the clean up. Specifically washing all the dirty dishes. Last year I had Michael helping me. Sometimes his now wife, Nicole, would assist as would an older gentleman named John and once in awhile Trevor would show up. Michael and Nicole are gone now. After they got married this past summer one of the ladies here, Helen, mentioned they moved to London, Ontario where I believe Michael is doing his residency.

We'll see who my helper ends up being then. Yesterday Harim helped me out by putting the clean dishes away. This is her second year here. She was a really big help. Very efficient since she already knew where everything goes. Things can be really crazy in the second kitchen where we wash everything. The dirty dishes come in so quickly you barely get a chance to breathe at the busiest point. I have a system worked out though. As long as no one comes in and gets in the way it seems to work pretty well. The dishes from the gym (plates, cups, cutlery) get first priority. The pots and pans and utensils etc. used in the preparation of the food get second priority. They can soak in the sink (if there's enough space) or we'll leave them on the stoves until there is space. There are three trolleys. I commandeer all of them. One stays in the gym for the dirty dishes. One stays in the second kitchen ready to go out to replace that one when it comes in. One is used to transfer the clean dishes to the first kitchen. That's it.