As the Coronavirus pandemic affects the world, the needs of the most vulnerable cannot be forgotten, but groups that work the homeless, etc have their own adjustments to make.
For the last several years, I have volunteered with a local chapter of Food Not Bombs. The group uses donated food to make vegan or vegetarian meals. My role is basically to cook the rice and make the coffee. I also act as a taste tester, assist with stirring, chopping and other preparation tasks, and sometimes seem like a human pinata.
In response to the pandemic, we are making some changes in procedures. We are splitting into two teams; one that cooks, and another that serves. The meals will now be in individual containers; we're basically doing take-out or pick up. We seem to have the meal assembly process down, but there was one small hitch. A breakdown in communication led to me making coffee when I shouldn't have. I was actually angry that it looked like several pots of coffee were going to go to waste, and that my role was going to be cut in half. I figured that I could start the rice and leave to work on coding or some other task. Cooler heads prevailed, though, and I realized that I can help in other ways; I can help make the meals, I can take pics of the food. I may also have to act as a barista and help serve the coffee.
I realize that, in the weeks to come, what we serve may be the one of the few meals a lot of folks get. I can imagine this crisis may affect other social services. Hours may be cut and many soup kitchens, and other places that provide food may not be open at all.
In a sense, I may be playing a larger role in mutual aid.
