The Sadness of Giving back to the Community

This past Saturday my mother and I went to go volunteer at a homeless shelter in D.C. to serve food to the homeless. As the homeless people began to come into the building I never thought I would see so many homeless people in my life fill up a whole cafeteria. I mean I have volunteered at a homeless shelter before but this place was extremely crowded of homeless people more than I have ever seen.

As I was there I happy because I was doing something constructive and giving back to the 

community, but when I saw all those homeless people hurrying in just to get a plate of food made me really sad. I looked at all these people and thought to myself, “That use to my family and I” and I know exactly what half these people are going through and dealing with this struggle.

What broke my heart the most while I was there is when we ran out of food to give to the homeless people. As more came in the door we had to say “We have no more food to serve.” It hurt me because every single person who walked in there just walked into the shelter just wanted a nice hot meal just like everyone else in there to get through the day. The food we served was probably the only meal that some of them actually at just to get the day. Just to imagine the homeless people who didn’t get a plate broke my heart.

What really caught my attention the most was that there were people of all ages, from little children to the elderly. I knew just by looking at the little children that they had no idea what was probably going on in their lives but I knew that they were going to be effected in the future because they had no stability in their lives at all. By looking at them and reminded me when my family and I had to eat at a homeless shelter before.

Sometimes in life you go through a struggle.