Presidio Hill Service: 2013

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

PHS Students Serve!

Glide began serving meals in 1969 as a volunteer-run potluck for 50 guests, and now serves on average 2,560 meals a day with the help of 30 kitchen and security staff and thousands of volunteers each year! Need and suffering never take a holiday! Our young people prove time and time again that they are ready to take on the fight to end suffering, even when our nation's leaders fail to respond. Please share in our students' remarkably rich and rewarding morning working with the Glide community!

Monday, May 27, 2013

A Time to Give!

It is 6:30 am and we are pouring out of cars at the corner of Taylor and Ellis in the "TL." We all could have been hugging our pillows on this holiday morning, but we committed to coming to San Francisco's Tenderloin to work, to support, and to respond to the needs of the people living in this unique community.

If we are lucky, life doesn't just give us what we want... life gives us what we need. This morning I wanted to be safe and comfortable at home in my bed. What I needed and life provided me was to be face to face with humanity, smiling, welcoming, working, thinking of others, and striving to be selfless. I was touched by how humbly we all accepted each of the jobs we were assigned. We showed up, did our best, and acted with grace and compassion. It is moments like these that I fully understand the blessings of my life.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

First Time at Glide

This was my first time bussing tables at Glide. It was a truly gratifying experience serving people who need food. There is a rhythm to it waiting tables, wipe down the table, snatch garbage as you walk to fill coffee jugs, or taking a tray to be cleaned. After a while you can move so fast in between crowded tables, automatically calling people ma'am or sir. You can smell so many different and new things, and see dogs and colourful mismatched clothing. I felt so energized, and we got there at 6:45!

I can't wait to go back.

~Isobel Obrecht

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Why We Serve!

I am choosing to serve at glide because I know that some people don't have what I have and I want to help those people as much as I can. I have served at glide before, so I sort of generally know what happens, but I might experience something unexpected. I will contribute to our success by listening to the rules and following them as best as I can, and doing what they need me to do, not what I want to do.

~ Daniella

Why I serve!

I know that other people in the world are not as lucky for. I know that some people can't eat everyday. I know that some people don't have a home.
I serve because I feel that because I am more fortunate than those people, that I am responsible to help them. And I want to help them

I expect Glide to be intense but also meaningful to me. I can tell that I will remember tomorrow for ever.

I am going to contribute to the success of the end of the day by doing exactly what I am supposed to do, and give it my all.

~ Ella

I choose to serve because I think it will be exciting and it will feel good to

help people who aren't as lucky as I am.

I expect it to be busy with hungry people eating and serving food.

I am going to contribute at the end of the day by doing what I am told and

working the best that I can

~ Paulina

I choose to server the people at Glide because I know the there are people that don't have a home, don't get that everyday support, they don't get the kind meals and kindness we get everyday. I feel that those people deserve to get the food and nurture as much as we do. And they may not get the love and support in life like we do.

~ Stella

I serve because I know how fortunate I am. I want to help people who are less fortunate. I hope I can make the world a more fair place. I want to help people. Even if it only for a day or a couple hours. I hope I can make someone happier. I expect the people at Glide to be very grateful. I have been there once before and everyone was very thankful and appreciative. I expect o be doing he same thing for hours. But the hours go by really fast.

I am going to listen to directions and cooperate. I am going o try to encourage and support people.

~ Chiara

We serve to help the people that are less fortunate, and the people that can't afford the food.

I expect serving at glide will be a new experience for all of us. I think it will be different, like the people I think will be different. I think it will be fun to serve there, to try something new.

I choose to serve because I would really like to help the people that are less fortunate. When you really think about it, we very fortunate and have lodes of stuff and food, and these people don't have very much. I want to help end hunger, and help people. I'm going to contribute by serving and trying my best to help people in need.

~ Pilar

I think that serving will make me feel good. I will contribute to the community of the Tenderloin by working my hardest. I serve because I want to help people who are less fortunate then myself. I feel that I am obliged to the human race to help people who need it most.

~ Joe

PHS Middle School Students Serve Breakfast

At Glide, you feel like a better person. You feel like you helped
somebody who really needs your help. At Glide, it sounded like lots trays clanging
and people yelling. It smelled like food and dirt. I saw people who looked like they
might be homeless, and also people who looked like they just couldn't afford
breakfast. I had a great time at glide and I hope to go again this year.

~ Ella

At Glide, my job was to re-ﬁll milk and coﬀee containers, wipe oﬀ the tables and take the trays away when the people were done eating. My experience at Glide was very fun. In the cafeteria there were lots of people. Most of the people there were friendly. The smell at glide was not good. I felt good because I knew that I was helping and taking care of people by serving them food. I herd people yelling and having conversations.

~ Liberty

I dabbed tables. A lot. I saw people that were hungry. Some of them would come back over and over and hide the food in their bag for later. I heard people talking loudly. It smelled faintly like fish... well, not so faintly actually. I felt good for helping people who don't have as much as me.

~ Daniella

At Glide I bussed tables, cleaned tables, got or milk or coffee also tried to help people. I saw people eating people talking and people sitting and other people helping. I heard, "Hot Coffee!" and conversing of people. I smelled interesting food. I felt good to be helping and I thought I was doing good!

~ Petal

At Glide, my job was to push trays through the lines and the next person would give it to the people or customers. We were in a big cafeteria. After a long time, the cafeteria was packed. I noticed that most of the poor people were African American. Lists of the poor people would talk to each other and tell stories to themselves. Lost of the people thanked us for volunteering. It smelled kind of funny, a little fishy but I got used to it after a while. After all, it was a fun experience.

~ NIna

PHS Students, Families and Friends Make the World A better Place

Quality Foods at Glide

Making a Difference One Sandwich at a Time

Today at Glide I learned many things, I learned that not all of the people that eat there are homeless. Many of them are homeless, and live on the streets. The majority of the people that do come to Glide live in a house but they are food insecure, meaning they can not afford to buy food. Glide is a great place to go if you’re food insecure. At Glide, my favorite part was working in the Coffee House. I wasn’t in the kitchen chopping up food or just putting some food on the tray. In the coffee house, I had to give people trays of food. What really surprised me was that most of them were actually polite. I would have thought they were going to be rude. Today I made a difference because I helped prepare peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with Charly. We were skilled and used two loafs of bread in less than a minute that is about 40 sandwiches. Since we were working so fast we were able to make more sandwiches than we were supposed to, which was pretty amazing if you ask me. I am looking forward to volunteer at Glide more often so I could help make a difference in the world.

~ Aracely

Glide Day Two February 5, 2015

PHS students showed up for and work three shifts at Glide's meals programs today. They arrived at 6:45 am and served breakfast to more than 450 Tenderloin residents. Students sat with staff and clients and enjoyed the foods they had previously served for breakfast. Students went on to report for their second shift doing food preparations. They had a blast collaborating as they prepared bagged lunches, whipped peanut butter and jelly, made salads, wrapped fried chicken, and cleaned up the kitchen. They rushed off to their third shift serving an amazing fried chicken lunch to grateful guests. Students closed the day by meeting with Reverend Dr Karen Oliveto and Kristen Growney Yamamoto, Co-Executive Director at Glide. Together they reflected on their day of service and set intentions.

Street Retreat 2014 - Making a Difference for People Struggling with Hunger and Homelessness

Our project day was spent taking on the complex issues of hunger and homelessness. We served at San Francisco’s world famous Glide and participated in a street retreat with the renowned Faithful Fools. We became one of the 4,000 plus people from all over the world that have made street retreats since July of 1998! We started our day at 6:45 am serving people living in San Francisco’s infamous Tenderloin in Glide’s Daily Free Meals program. Giving was a transformative experience. The Glide meals program needed us and each day requires 60 volunteers each day in order to fill the breakfast, lunch and dinner shifts, 364 days a year. Our food service shift at Glide was 7:00 am through 9:00 am. Once we finished serving breakfast we participated in a daylong street retreat, where we worked at knowing more about the people we served and the remarkable neighborhood that these people call home. The retreat began at 9:30 am as we gathered with song and reflective readings. After introducing ourselves, sharing what had brought each of us to the retreat and the hopes and expectations that each one brought, an orientation to the layout of the day was given and then we set out onto the streets for a number of hours. We were shadowed by experienced adults who had previously participated in and facilitated retreats. There was nothing that anyone of us was supposed to do except trust that we would be led to that which is ours to encounter in the day. In the afternoon, we regrouped to share our experiences and close with a tea. The daylong street retreat offered an opportunity for all of us to bear witness to our own experiences and life story as it relates to what we encountered as we spent a day walking and exploring the streets of the Tenderloin. We entered into the street retreat not knowing what we would encounter and with a lot of apprehension about what it would be. From that place of not knowing, students discover what there is for each of us to know. This made it possible for each of us to begin to “discover our common humanity.” Myths about this neighborhood and the people we support were shattered. Our own stories were revealed to us. We began to see the light, courage, strength and creativity in the people we encounter. While moving through the day, students and adults were asked to be conscious of what came up from within - attitudes, judgments, fears, assumptions - about who is in the streets and why some people are homeless, especially at a time when we are being told that the freedom and privileges of the United States are envied around the world. What was it we saw and heard and felt as we had conversations with individuals, walked through the streets, sat on a bench in the U.N. Plaza, or in a drop-in center, stood in a food line waiting for a meal, became tired or had to go to the bathroom and confronted signs that say, “rest-rooms for customers only”, or “no loitering”? We shared the richness of the experience as it was reflected through the voices of those who had gone into the streets with us. We treasured sharing this experience.

PHS Pledges Support to Glide Meals Program

By Isabel Schroedel

I first started volunteering at Glide Memorial Church on a field trip in sixth grade. I had a great experience there, and it felt really good to be helping people in need. I decided to volunteer with Glide’s Free Meals program for my Bat Mitzvah community service project, and have continued to volunteer regularly since then, as well as helping out in the volunteer coordination office. Once I became aware of how essential volunteer assistance is to the organization (every meal requires 20 volunteers – that’s 21,900 volunteers a year!), I realized that having more student participation would be extremely beneficial for Glide, as well as provide students with an invaluable learning experience. I approached Todd near the end of last year about starting a Glide Committee at PHS to help arrange more volunteer trips.

Since then, with Todd’s help, I have gotten together a group of students and approached Scott about our plans to organize more frequent volunteer trips. The PHS faculty has been very supportive in our efforts, and, after working very hard organizing during the first semester, we had our first trip to Glide in January. Our first trip was a big success; everything went smoothly, and everybody seemed to have a great time. It was very exciting to see all of our hard work pay off, and we are in the process of organizing more trips for the rest of the year.

Day One SF Food Bank - February 4, 2015