Service for AMY's Place: 3/10/17

Heading back to Moose with the majority
of our ingredients from Cash and Carry

The Banana Slugs gathered after school to start their spring season service off with a bang! Keeping with the theme of homelessness that the Banana Slugs have been working so intimately with, we shifted our focus to buying, preparing and serving a meal to homeless or previously homeless teens. The wonderful venue for this? Amy's Place. You can read about Amy's Place mission (and find out what AMY stands for) at their website here. 

We met our goals of collaboratively shopping for groceries (which involved surprisingly more math than we were expecting!), then collaboratively cooking two big pots of chili, cornbread, brownies, and caesar salad. Girls were super motivated every step of the way-- From chopping, to mixing, to washing several loads of dishes, to sweeping, and taking out compost and recycling, the Banana Slugs worked hard to cook food with love. Shout out to Maya's Grandma, Gale, for sponsoring us so we could use the amazing Bellingham Co-Housing Kitchen for the use of their space-- what a great venue for our time together. 

  

As our pots full of chili bubbled on the stove, we reviewed an exercise described here about privilege and inequality of opportunity. This led to a powerful discussion about the road blocks to success many people face, and helped remind us of our own privilege and the good fortune we share to have a safety net and to have all of our basic needs met most of the time (if you'd like, you could see if your daughter remembers the concept of a safety net and Maslow's Hierarchy of needs). We got into solid conversations about homelessness and barriers to "breaking the cycle" of homelessness, which dug deep into the hearts of the Banana Slugs, and had a much needed and full-of-love check-in.

After a quick zip over on the bus to Amy's Place headquarters, we discovered that our chili was indeed tasty, if the response of participants was our measure. They piled up plates with gusto, and came back for more... and more.  There were leftovers, so we sat down with the participants to learn more of their lives. We listened to their struggles, to what they do during the day, to their daily searches for food and a safe sleeping place (think.. roofs, under bridges, etc.), and to much of their expressed gratitude. The girls connected deeply with many of the meal's attendees.

What did they serve us? Expanded awareness, understanding, empathy, honesty, reality, kindness, open-mindedness, acceptance, trust. And more.

Here a just a few heartfelt quotes (of many!!) from the Slugs during our closing circle:

"We're all one."

"They [the meal attendees] are so brave and courageous and inspiring."

"I am much more aware of my privilege and how to use it to its full potential."

Friday was a life-changing service kind of day that we anticipate will resonate for the Banana Slugs for a long, long time. And really, it doesn't get much better than that.

Our Word of the Day? "Community." 

Mottos Especially Alive Today: Our Cups Overflow, All Things Are Connected, We're All Teachers, Attitude of Gratitude, Be Here Now, Safety First

To see more photos of our day, click here!