Day 4: Wheeling, WV

Today was another fantastic day at Wheeling! We did some more organizing and can-stacking in the morning. It really struck me how we kept any food that was less than a 1.5 years past the expiration date, so if any can said August 2009 on the bottom or later, we kept it! Quite different than home. I'm pretty careful about making sure I don't eat expired food, and if something is even just a few weeks past the date, I consider it stale and usually throw it out. It's funny how pressing circumstances can make you look at a stamped date in a completely different way.

Just like yesterday, the conversations I had during lunch had the greatest impact on me. Today I met Adam; I guess he was around 20 years old, and he was sitting in the far corner of the eating area. When I started talking to him, I realized we had some things in common - like we were both sports fans. But what struck me was that we were both young, and I found it easier to relate to him than some of the older patrons.

But talking with Adam was like hitting a brick wall. Here we are, sitting together, sharing a meal, yet look how different our lives have turned out so far! We're both around 20, but while I'm studying at Georgetown he's going to a soup kitchen just to get a meal! I realized just how lucky I really was. I could be in his shoes if I grew up with abusive parents or made some wrong choices in my life. Adam was also on medication that was supposed to cure his heroine addiction. What if that was me? What if I was Adam? It could have happened, our places could have been reversed, but instead I was the one sitting up high, climbing the ladder, enjoying the infinite opportunities that surround me. Why?

I was overwhelmed by these questions.

I also talked to Terry today. He seemed a little more successful than most of the people at the kitchen. He was a Wheeling native who became involved in construction after high school because it was such a lucrative field. We talked for a while about his job, but the thing he stressed the most was the importance of family. He had moved back to Wheeling after he found out his brother was sick, and had stayed in Wheeling to be closer to his family. He's now eligible for retirement, but he works on little odds-and-ends just to stay busy.

As the days go on, I slowly begin to realize that the soup kitchen is not just a place where people come to eat. It's more than that - it's a place where people come to socialize. It seems that the soup kitchen provides a base for a large community of poor patrons; the people who go to eat also go to talk and hang out at the same time. Just from the few conversations I've had so far, I can alredy tell that talking is even more important than eating! For example, Terry didn't even eat his food while I talked with him; when it was time to go, most of his food was still on his plate, so he just wrapped a few biscuits in a napkin!

The power that a conversation can have is astounding.

We ended the day with a tradition called the "steak-fry" - basically the entire neighborhood brings their own meat and cooks it together on the grill. We grilled tonight with the Board of Directors, and boy were those steaks delicious! A tasty way to cap-off a great Tuesday!