Teens discover volunteering is recipe for success

"BEANS! Bring up a case or two of beans," a volunteer shouts.

A teenager spills flour on his sneakers, eliciting laughter from his friends.

Downstairs, a half-dozen teens stock cabinet shelves while others set tables, pull food from a freezer and carry canned goods up to the kitchen amid chatter and music from a battered radio.

It's a typical Tuesday at the soup kitchen in St. John's Center in Albany, but these volunteers are anything but typical. They're some of the many teenagers who travel to the twice-a-week soup kitchen to cook, serve and clean up after a meal for about 170 guests.

Expectations

Like this group of a dozen juniors from Saratoga Central Catholic High, some of the teens come as part of a school- or parish-required service project. Others volunteer on their own, like the young people from St. Madeleine Sophie parish in Guilderland or Sacred Heart in Castleton.

The teens usually arrive "pretty shell-shocked," says Sister Betsy Van Deusen, CSJ, who directs St. John's Center. Many expect guests to the soup kitchen to fit a television stereotype: exclusively male, homeless, dirty, even dangerous.

"I thought that the people would be mean or they would kill us," one teen wrote of his apprehensions. Another commented: "I expected to see poorer people than I did."

Instead, the volunteers meet men, women and young children, and even entire families who simply can't afford the basics of life.

Equals together

"I thought there'd be weird people," says Dennis Quinn, a veteran Spa Catholic volunteer, of his first experience at a soup kitchen. "But there was this guy who had a really cool bike. He showed me pictures [of it]."

Before the teens meet the guests, "we talk about human dignity," Sister Betsy tells The Evangelist. As the teens stock shelves and cook to ease into the work of the day, "we tell them that these are our guests here; how would you welcome anybody into your home?"

Cries of "Where does the oatmeal go?" and "What's the flour mix?" interrupt the director's recitation of today's meal: ziti with meat sauce, bread, salad and a cold drink. Meals at St. John's are served restaurant-style, an effort to provide dignity to guests who must line up outside in the cold and wait for the soup kitchen to open.

LessonsBY serving others, the teen volunteers learn to advocate for the poor, hopes Rev. Tony Maione, campus minister at Spa Catholic.

"We try to make a connection between faith and action. Our theme is the letter of James, where he says, `What good is faith without action?'" he explains.

Some teens look at the problem practically: "Some old guy's going to eat," Jason Mullin says of his reason for working at the soup kitchen. "It'll be better than the rest of their days."

Others find their ideas on poverty changing: "I'm glad I did help out now," wrote one teen after volunteering. "I had thought poverty and hunger was partly because of laziness in some cases. We could just contribute what we can and be more sympathetic towards these people."

Connections

One of Sister Betsy's favorite experiences at the soup kitchen involved a teen volunteer.

"This seventh- or eighth-grader came, and he was absolutely overwhelmed," she remembers. "We tell the kids that at some point, you may need a time-out to come upstairs to the kitchen, take a moment and sit back. He had a couple of those while he was here. He was helping out, but he was clearly struggling.

"He came back three or four weeks later, and he was like Mr. Hospitality!" she continues. "He was gregarious. He was talking to the folks, saying, `How are you doing?' He had experienced the pain, and he went home and clearly reflected on it -- and came back and wanted to make it better for those folks. He'll never think about the poor in the same way again."

Relationships

An hour before the lunch guests arrive, some teens still seem nervous about being at the soup kitchen, loudly joking with one another or silently concentrating on their tasks.

Matt Huston and classmate Derek Poliquin, measuring out egg mix for future meals, echo each other's comments that they hope "to learn to relate to people" through volunteering.

A previous group of volunteers left "more grateful for what they have," says Father Maione. "Many of them want to come back and do more. Others were more deeply affected. As one girl put it, she was left with `a different attitude toward the poor.' She finally saw the poor in the flesh and realized that they were real, loving human beings like herself."

Some teens observed changes in their peers. "They can be nice when they are not near their friends," one remarked. Another wrote: "My classmates were for the most part so way good at this."

Clean-up crew

After the meal, the guests move upstairs, where they can choose from day-old vegetables, bread and other food left on tables in the hallway. The room usually clears out quickly as guests try for their pick of the food upstairs, says Sister Betsy.

In the meantime, the teen volunteers begin cleaning up -- and processing the day. For this group, what Sister Betsy calls "the myth of the poor as `those people'" has been debunked.

On the way home, the Spa Catholic students will fill out reflection sheets on what they've learned. "When you feed the needy, you feed Jesus. When you don't feed the needy, you forget Jesus," a volunteer from the last group wrote simply.

Said another: "Jesus spent so much of His life helping and aiding everyone He could. He gave us a perfect example and as Christians, we can set this example for the rest of the world."

(To learn more about how you can help St. John's soup kitchen, call 472-9091.)

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