My day...

The company I work for has a program called 'Invest A Day'. Essentially as an employee you get 1 day a year where you can take off work and do some charitable work. Some people go to a pet shelter, others go to a soup kitchen, etc. There's all sorts of things that one can invest their day in.

I decided to do it this year and my boss pointed me to a food kitchen working out of a nearby church. It sounded good so I filled out my paperwork and contacted the man that coordinates and I was ready to go.

I arrived at 10 this morning. We unloaded his van and started to strategize our day. The menu was open faced roast beef sandwiches with gravy, mashed potato casserole and fruit salad for desert. The meal started at 6 so we had a little time here and there to chill out and talk a bit.

The man's name was Michael and we had a lot in common. We both leaned about the same on the political scale, we were both into guns and we were both trying to lose weight. So on top of cooking, I got to know Michael and we came to know each other quite a bit. Later, some other people from my company showed up and I got to know them a little bit too.

The work wasn't too bad as I've worked in similar kitchens in my younger days. I pulled apart the roast beef, pulled the stems off some grapes and helped make the mashed potato casserole. It was nice to see that the people coming in that night would get a good quality meal.

It was a really good experience overall. It was nice to give back to the community a little bit. It was a nice change of pace to take a few hours out of my life and do something selfless instead of self involved. I talked to Michael at the end of the day and this is an ongoing thing. I plan to go out and help with serving and preparing meals after work maybe once a month or so. That was my day...