Donating your time
On holidays, I can be found helping prepare & serve meals at the local rescue mission. Today while standing in line at the coffee shop, I heard a gentleman ordering 25 breakfast sandwiches with the request "to be delivered to the women's shelter". The joy of feeding hungry people without expecting anything in return comes from the heart. & brings contentment to my life. Do any of you practice or observe similar random acts of kindness?
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5 Comments:
When I helping run a catering business a few years back we began bringing left-overs, (and encouraging our clients to let us do so) to various shelters around our city. I am not talking about plate scrapings...but trays of the same food people were paying a good amount of money for, that simply didn't get used. As we continued this practice people got to know me and our truck and would come out looking for us. The receivers of the food began to complain..."another tray of fruit"..."you brought paella last time" . At the point where it seemed we were getting far more complaints than thank you I decided I'd rather throw the food in the trash than go through the trouble of making an extra trip only to get berated for not donating what people wanted or expected. At least the rats were happy.
Not the heart warming story you were probably looking for, but it was my sad experience. I wasn't looking for a pat on the back, or a huge thank you, but I wasn't expecting to go away feeling like a fool.
Vitello Tonnato at 7:22AM on 07/09/07
Shouldn't people give just to feed hungry mouths and not give to get pat on the back?
Lilartist at 8:33AM on 07/09/07
Lilartist- Not sure if your comment was directed at me, but I did write I was not looking for a pat on the back. I started doing this because it seemed like the right thing to do, but complaints and antipathy turned into a bit of a demotivator.
Vitello Tonnato at 11:20AM on 07/09/07
Well, of course, they "should" give just to feed people. But givers are human beings and it's a lot harder to give when the recipients are complaining about what you give. There are lots of "should"s in the world, and it's impossible for a person to abide by all of them. The recipients "should" have said 'Thank you', too, but they didn't, apparently.
But I'll bet the shelter was glad to have the sandwiches.
lemons at 2:30PM on 07/09/07
The complainers might have been just trying to engage you in a conversation, so they didn't feel so humbled. I find that is the case sometimes, and if you tease them about what you're bringing next time, they might respond very well.
jumpygrouch at 1:24PM on 07/12/07