Cooking for a cause

CATCHY TITLE, RIGHT?

In my never ending quest to come up with titles that don't make me feel absolutely ridiculous, I find myself woefully inept once again.

But now that that is over, we shall move on. Again, I haven't posted in a while and I probably must forgo the more mundane details that have passed since I last wrote. This post will be around a volunteering opportunity I've found here in Seattle that I actually enjoy.

I went to FareStart a long time ago with my team from work. I can most simply describe FareStart as a food kitchen that prepares meals for homeless shelters in Seattle. It is also a school of sorts where students can enroll and learn about cooking while serving others in their city. Even cooler than that though is the fact that the students are "homeless and disadvantaged" individuals and they are getting a new lease on life through the art of cooking.

I like food. I like helping people. I was sold.

Since the first time I went, I organized a small group of my own friends and we all marched over to FareStart and volunteered this past weekend. I cut up more carrots Saturday than I have in my whole life. I made new friends in a city where it seems harder than it needs to be to make more than "single serving friends" (to borrow a phrase from Chuck Palahniuk). People just seem to bond well when they have knifes in their hands. Who knew?

There was my group which was a mix of friends from church and work. Another group was just a bunch of neighbors in a downtown apartment complex. Another group was just one girl that decided to come by herself. I exchanged numbers with the various groups represented and we may try to organize to go together again.

I also talked to my building management and I guess I'm on point to help organize my own building to go volunteer. It may not be the Peoples City Mission where I served and made such good friends, but I love working at FareStart and I am looking forward to going back and taking new people with me. Learning new cooking tricks doesn't hurt either.

Ok, I'll come up with more things to write about and make a concerted effort to do this more often.

Cheers!