Helping at the Neighborhood Supper

As I listened to the prophet and apostles in General Conference a few days ago, I had the feeling more than once that I need to get more involved in our community, and find a meaningful way to serve others.  Writing checks to charities can make a real difference in the world, but there's also something to be said for rolling up your sleeves and serving someone face to face in your own town.

Consequently, I told my family that dinner was going to be a little different tonight.  We were going to help out at our town's Neighborhood Supper, a weekly dinner hosted by five churches in the area.  It's free for anyone who needs a meal or just wants some friendly people to chat with over dinner.  Most of the guests are elderly people who live alone and look forward to socializing with their neighbors each week.  Our congregation prepares and serves the meal on the second Tuesday of every month over at the Congregational church.

We arrived to find over a dozen friends from church preparing to serve about 60 guests tonight.  Joy helped plate the food.  I carried trays of plates, which Daniel carefully distributed to the guests.  Todd ran around the room until he bumped into a server and I handed him a calculator to keep him occupied (I need to find an age-appropriate way for him to help next time).  Daddy arrived from work near the end and helped rinse the dishes.  Once all the guests had been served, we volunteers quickly ate some dinner too, then served up dessert.

Anna was assigned to collect used plates for the missionaries to scrape and rinse.  At first she was nervous and unsure what to say.  I told her to walk around and look for someone whose plate seemed empty, then politely ask them, "May I take your plate?"  Once she knew what to do, Anna went straight to work, and cheerfully collected plates for the next hour or so.  She was such a friendly helper that one guest even tried to give her a tip.  Anna insisted that she was just here to help.

I'm proud of her, Joy, and Daniel for politely, diligently serving our neighbors this evening.  We all agreed that we're looking forward to helping again next month.