One Last Look Around

On our last day of service on Chicago, we started our day very early, as we had to be at the Inspiration Cafe at 5:30 for the morning breakfast shift.  Amazingly, the morning flew by while we prepped, cooked. flipped and toasted our way through the morning.  The kitchen was humming, the servers were busy and the customers were plenty.  Some of the clients were familiar, but someof the new clients were remarkable.  A couple of familes came in, with children. Maybe a kid 15, one 8 and 7.  And another, about 10 or 11 had a noticible quirk...Her hair completely covered her face, even while she was suiting up for her walk to school.  The truth is that I think she was a girl, she had a pink back-pack, but I couldn't really tell.  All I knew was that she didn't want us to see her face.  Another, maybe the 7 year old, stretched out over 2 chairs and slept after breakfast as her brother finished his pancakes.  Yes, it really is the kids that make this lifestyle urgently unbearable.
Anna was working there, and she was our original contact.  She was very happy having the girls there, very complimentary and anxious to have them come again. 
We finished and cleaned up from breakfast, and went right to the local grocery store for supplies to make 80 bag lunches for the weekend Cafe, Too attendees.  We found a way to make a planof assembly and off we went!  83 sandwiches and fruit and drink and chips!  Good job girls!
After a little nap to catch up, we were off to the Woodlands school in Lake Forest, about an hour north of the city. They weere excited to have us come, and the girls were excited to be there.  Our girls were integrated into their Mini-Olympics and seemed to have a ball.  It's always fun to see one of the sisiter schools and how they do things.  It seemed beautifully familiar!
See you all at home tomorrow.  What a great week it's been!

Day V, Lucy and Ethel on the Conveyor Belt!

Well, another day has come and gone, and we really feel confident about moving around in the big city now! A slower morning, finally, gave the girls a chance to sleep in, miss the breakfast buffet and go out to forage for city food. Turns out that Einsteins has a place just down the street and I think they even found a Starbucks! Our girls are really getting resourceful, oui?

 

We were finally off to the Greater Chicago Food Depository for yet more training to feed the hungry! Today we were all assigned to work on an assembly line for a program that they call "Nutrition for Knowledge." We packed bags of nutritious snacks that are distributed to school kids on Friday afternoon, hoping to keep them in good food for the weekend. The school district was noticing that a drop in nutritious food over a couple of days was actually keeping the kids from retaining knowledge until later in the school week. So, if the kids have some apple sauce, soup, whole grain crackers, milk and other good food, they would be prepared to come back to class every Monday, ready to work.

Assembling these bags made 4 hours fly by, as we all made another group of friends from all over the country. Not only were there kids from a high school, and a group from a college in Nebraska (Sr. Bearss!), but we were working side by side with some pretty spunky senior citizens that were really a blast. Very inspiring, to say the least!

When we finished, we trained it back to town, over to Lincoln Park where we had a little dinner and went to see a production of "Million Dollar Quartet" at the Apollo Theater. Great show about Sun Records, Sam Phillips, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. I think the girls really were surprised at how much fun it was, and again, we spent the evening with lots of "seasoned citizens!"

  

A quick train ride and a brisk walk home, and now we're all geting ready for our 4:30am wake up call tomorrow. Breakfast shift at Inspiration Cafe...and afterward we make 80 bag lunches for their weekend friends. Stay tuned for detail and pictures...

Night-night!

Day IV, Getting Flakier, and a Dinosaur Named Sue

Today we all started out feeling like we owned this city. On the bus, off to the Field Museum, one more of the world-class facilities in the great city. No sweat. Bus to the museum campus and out we go. The museum was a blast, and we had a great lunch in anticipation of a long afternoon of corn flake scooping.

And it was all good, until..the bus stop. There we were. At the stop. No bus. 10 minutes more, no bus. 5 minutes more, wrong bus. 15 minutes more, no bus. Late, later latest...until we started our search for the next viable bus stop or train platform. And after meeting a friendly bus driver and a helpful security guard, we got to the Food Depository just a little late. New friends met us there, and we quickly fell into line. But this time we were pros. We knew what was what and where to go and what to do. The girls confidence level was way up and they were really producing a lot of re-packed cornflakes.

When we finished, it was a train and bus to the Navy Pier for quick dinner at Harry Carry's and Alice in wonderland in 3D! Wow, that technology has really come a long way!

We're back to the "flakery" tomorrow to make the world a better place, one flake at a time. And then, we'll see what's up for the evening!

Check in tomorrow.

BTW: I think we were followed home by a couple of street dogs after they got the scent of cereal in our shoes...

Getting a Little Flaky, Day III

Turns out that one needs to know all of the colors by heart to successfully navigate the Chicago Elevated Train System. And now we know the difference between pink and orange. After a slight misread, we were able to make a quick train direction correction and get to the Greater Chicago Food Depository in time to work our shift.

 

Today was re-packing day. The GCFD acquires food from different sources, some donated, some purchased. When the GCFD purchases, for example, corn flakes, from Kellogg's, whatever they purchase is matched in donation by Kellogg. Buy1, get one. Buy 52, get 52. But this is no regular cereal box,..it measures about 5' cubed and together, the six boxes we repacked weighed about a ton! That's a lot of corn flakes!!

Our mission was to scoop about 8oz. of flakes into a bag, weigh and adjust the amount, seal it and box it up, then onto a case and then a pallet. The flakes were shoveled into smaller bins by students from the University of Maryland (how ironic, as they've been shoveling all winter!).

Then into the bags, etc. It was a non-stop blitz from 9 til 12 and in the end....just short of 3000 bags of cereal going out in to Cook County, Illinois!

The girls were amazing and dilligent in their efforts, and again made us proud. It didn't hurt to have cute high school and college boys around, either.

Having full color knowledge, we found our way home, to lunch at Frankies. Nice! And then napping, or napping while giggling...Who knew?

This evening we had dinner and a short presentation from 2 ASH alums living in the neighborhood, Emily Cochran and Christina Sabatini. They shared their personal Project Term experiences like they happened yesterday, and then talked to the girls about their on-going commitment to service in their new environment. They also talked about their college experiences and gave advice about personal responsibility, focusing on some sort of a goal and maintaining their Sacred Heart roots after they graduate from ASH.

Home to refelct and off to bed!

Tune in to read about another day of GCFD-a-palooza!!

Project Term Begins, Day ll

Last night the girls were feeling like we hadn't really begun Project Term, mostly because it was a travel day and all we did was get settled in Chicago and eat dinner. But today was a different story.

We didn't have to be at Inspiration Cafe until 4pm, to serve dinner, so we got to spend some time at the Shedd Aquarium. Truly one of the finest aquatic museums in the world, we used our all access passes to access it all! We saw every single type of aqua-life, plant, bird, fish and a couple of questionable beings, and then we went off to the "Fantasea" Dolphin and other critter show,...Amazing. And just when we were dawdling through the museum after lunch and about to lost their interests,..off to the Cafe!

The Inspiration Cafe was ready to have us, train us and let us be part of the front line of quality service to the under served. We served drinks and meals, as well as cooked all of the food in the kitchen! Clients were there at 4 when we arrived, although dinner isn't ready until 6pm. And today dinner was a little late, as they were finishing late from a cooking class offered to clients. Late meant that we (the servers) had to satisfy them with drinks (Lemonade, tea, coffee and Arnold Palmers). The clients were lovely, however quirky and unpredictable. Mostly they were interested in having dinner, communing with acquaintances and enjoying games of scrabble and dominoes. We cooked, served, cleaned up, and were offered (and accepted) dinner when we were done.

Inspiration Cafe truly serves the under served in the community with dignity and respect, table side service and refills on drinks. What a priceless experience for our girls, and how proud we were of them! Never a complaint, always eager to serve and efficient with time, they were a pleasure to have and the Cafe would like us to think about coming again!

A snappy subway and quick bus ride home, and we all collapsed.

Tomorrow we're going to the Chicago Food Depository. Should be a blast. Tune in to see if we had to send Analisa to chase down another bus....She's 2 for 2 so far!

Amtrak, The CTA and a Sailor Named Shipwreck

Chicago Service Log: Day One

After meeting in the parking lot/Birmingham Train Station, we were all safely aboard our Amtrak train to Chicago. The trip was light and uneventful, as the girls found their way around the train. Between trips to the cafe car and listening to music, the 6 or 7 hours on the train flew by. They were certainly well prepared to spend time reading, iPoding and playing "snaps", a game that Ms. Bick and I have yet to decipher. Waiting for them to nap was to no avail, as they found each other's company very entertaining. As a matter of fact, Ms. Bick and I are working on converting giggling to an alternative energy source...

I digress.

We arrived safely in historic Union Station and began our navigation through the city by securing our week-long Chicago Transit Authority passes (bus and train). We found our way to the bus, got safely to our stop and to our hotel/home for the week. We followed this up with a brisk walk to Ed Debevic's for dinner and a few insults from the waiter (that's what they're famous for) and a more confident amble home.

We anticipated our day tomorrow at Inspiration Cafe, and we watched the "True North" video from their web site. We're all looking forward to seeing this famous place and getting into the service mode.

Check in with us tomorrow!

And, Away We Go!

St. Madeleine Sophie said: "Be humble, be simple and bring joy to others."

And, today we all began that journey. In our chapel, after prayer, candlelight and words of inspiration, the 2010 Project Term season was launched and the adventures began.

We have been offered amazing opportunities to serve in the Metropolitan Chicago area, at the Inspiration Cafe and at the Chicago Food Depository. If you can, go ahead and check out the Inspiration Cafe's website (http://www.inspirationcorp.org/) and watch their video. It's really an amazing place that serves the homeless and hopeless with dignity and respect. We'll be serving also, as well as bagging lunches, packing boxes at the Depository and filling other needs that they have.

We'll also be touring cultural sites in the area and navigating through that great working city via mass transit. It's always fun to be with students from our area and let them have a shot at moving through traffic and bus stops. It's never long before they are experts and tour guides!

We'll also have an opportunity to meet with some ASH alums who live in Chicago , and hear about their continuing commitment to service in their own communities. Just because high school is done doesn't mean service is done for a Sacred Heart girl!

We meet Sunday to board the train...Stay tuned for tales of adventures and laughs!

MLC