Metro Relief Open House

Little sister stirring the soup.

Dad pouring the soup into the cambros.

The pantry.

Dad praying with the staff and volunteers before the open house started.

Little sister and I serving soup from the bus. (photo by mom)

The view before you step down into the well that puts you at street level to serve the soup.

Dad showing mom how to serve up the soup.

103/365 : Soup - ready to be consumed by local friends to raise awareness about what Metro Relief does.

Yesterday my family and I spent a few hours up at Metro Relief here in The Colony. They had an open house where people who are curious what exactly they do could come and experience it all a little bit. There were tours around the building, including the pantry area which provides meals for over 200 families a month. People were also invited to come outside - despite the rain - and get a cup of soup and some bread, served up just how they do it twice a week in their urban outreaches.

I haven't posted about it on here yet, but this is actually where my dad spends his days now. He quit his long-time job of truck driving a few months ago and is now raising support and serving in Fort Worth and Dallas with Metro. That is why we were there serving. I have a food handler's license (part of working at a fast food restaurant), so I was there to boss around my mom and little sister, who I was serving soup with. Little sister and I were in the well, which put us at about the same level as everyone else, and we found out what people wanted - soup? lemonade? water? cookie? - and our mom served it up and handed it to us.

This isn't the first time I've done something like this, however. I posted a little bit last month about my two trips to New York City to serve on the Relief Bus, which is like the mother of Metro, I guess you could say. We also served with Metro Relief a little over a year ago and I blogged about it (on my old blog) here. My favorite place to be when I'm serving on a bus like this is inside, serving the soup and other goods to the people. This time around I found I was much better at chatting with people, which is a huge thanks to working at Chick-fil-A.

- rl

(p.s. this is part of my 14 goals for 2014. You can view all my goals here.)