Develop Your Community Event @ Julian Street Inn

It took me this long to write this review because it took me this long to start eating eggs again.
I peeled, with my fellow volunteers, what seemed like 6,000 eggs.
I wrote them off then and there.
The eggs, not my fellow volunteers.
It’s amazing how close «volunteer opportunities» are to everyday life. Occasionally, we have this impression that these places and people are far away, or downtown, or across the train tracks.
All you have to do is look. Across the street from a Sharks parking lot that on most weekday nights is filled with BMWs, you’ll find Julian Street Inn with a full cafeteria of people that need a hand from time to time.
Unlike the other places I volunteer, this place was a well oiled machine.
A full working commercial kitchen, a warm buffet line, serving utensils, plates, etc.
Thanks to Noelle for organizing the event. Was a great time.
Quinoa.

Egg-​tastic
Egg-​citing
Egg-​treme FUN!
Egg-​tertaining
Second volunteering event under my belt… and this was a good one folks!
Noelle organized a beautifully inspiring DYC at the Julian Street Inn. The start was a little rough, but once Noelle was at the helm, things started rocking and a rolling! Parking can be cumbersome, but luckily, no event at the HP center, and I parked in that big lot straight ahead. Be advised-​park in lot C.
As compared to my first Unilocal volunteering experience, this one really gave me an immediate warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach. It was all worth it, when a man walking to get his food, looked over to us and shouted «God Bless You All. We appreciate it.»
Yeah…it was all worth it. and I got to see the outcome of my handy work first hand.
During the hours at the Inn, I performed the following tasks:
rolled up utensils in napkins,
separated dressing from salads,
sliced up some salmon
transferred food dishes to serving/​assembly line area
burned some red beans and rice with Watani
AND yes…
peeled a gazillion eggs! Who knew I would be peeling so many eggs.
I love protein and all… but this was crazy.
Truth be told, my day started rocky. Once I got moving and put things in perspective, I realized that my little gripes were just that… little and paled in comparison to the people I was helping.
On this day, my frown turned into a smile, knowing I had done something right for the world.
3 hours well spent, and 3 cheers for Noelle. I really want to do this once a month, and really need to get the recipe for that A** Kicking Salmon!!!
Yes, I tried some… and it was lovely to see that the people at the Julian Inn are being fed healthy, sustainable, well balanced, healthy meals.
Now if only the kids of the cafeteria world could get the same… we would all be wonderful!

i like to give back to my community by buying locally. typically that’s all i’ve done and in the back of my brain, for quite some time, i wanted to voluteer my time for someting noble and humbling.
recently, i’ve been on a early rotation at work where i need to be there anywhere from 230am to 4am. take your pick. needless to say, i need to be in bed and asleep early enough in the evening, not night, to get enough rest. i started to feel really tired, not sleepy yet, just tired — thanks to my comfy couch and great company. i almost didn’t make it to julian street inn even though i was encouraged not to. deep down inside i wanted to go and knew if i REALLY wanted to go, i would sacrafice and go. that’s what it’s all about right? right. a small portion of time to help out those who need it more than me. i literally rolled off the couch and planted myself on the hard living room floor and tourchered myself to watching mtv cribs never-​seen-​before-​worse-​antics. about 30 minutes later, like clock work, i’d just had enough of mtv cribs «filler» show (i guess they didn’t have anything «good» to fill that time slot hahaha) — «janice, it’s almost 4 and i’m not tired anymore — lets go».
all i could commit to was 2 hours, since i had to be at work today at 3am. all i need is 6 hours of sleep and i can run a marathon. well, not really but you get my point.
the 2 hours i voluteered was very productive even though we had it pretty easy (i was told). all that was needed was to prepare the food and set the chairs. no cooking from scratch was needed. despite how easy it sounds, it actually took a little over 2 hours to get everything ready to serve. i did various things such as: setting up chairs, decorating, cutting bread, stirring the beans and rice, tossing salads (my favorite hahaha), drying dishes and stomping trash (in shorts).
i had a great time and had a good feeling inside when i left even though i couldn’t stay for the entire time. i wish i didn’t have to work so early the next day, i would have stayed the whole time.
it was totally worth it…

This was my first volunteer event in a long time because I used to volunteer at various places during the holidays and I must have had an eye for places that it made no difference and was unappreciated. Not so with this event. There was one woman in the kitchen doing everything when we arrived who seemed very happy to have us there to help (and she kept everyone pretty busy the entire time getting everything prepared so it was great having as many people help as we did).
Aside from making a huge difference for that one woman for the day, it was great seeing and knowing that the people we were serving dinner appreciated our efforts (at one point everyone clapped for us along with quite a few people saying «god bless you».)
I don’t know about you, but when I can spend a few hours out of my day to make a positive impact in peoples lives it makes me feel good. This event has reinstated my faith in volunteering and am looking forward to the next event.
In the words of most of the people we served, god bless.

This was my first time ever volunteering in this capacity… normally I just help out where church is involved… but this was a great experience!
At first I drove around stupidly looking for a parking spot somewhere on a nearby street and then realized I can just park in the arena’s parking lot with the Inn’s handy dandy parking pass…
So I walked in not really sure what to expect at this point, guessing it was going to be some pretty dirty work I was getting myself into… I said hello to everyone who was there already and first thing we started doing was putting out the lizards for the place settings… then a bunch of us started getting the plasticware into their napkins making a bowl full of I believe 105 was the final number per our official counter Watani…
After we had the tables covered in lizards and the plasticware finished we set out to get dirty in the kitchen… we started getting the salad together… then helped peeling some eggs… and waited patiently for our fearless leader to come back and give us more directions… we continued to help in the kitchen, setting up the dessert trays and heating up the side dishes… I avoided the salmon like the plague and let Flor and Yana take care of that (I hate fish)…
We had everything up and ready to go before 6:30 when the clients started filing in, signing in, and coming for us to fill their plates. They were all very gracious, thankful, and had kind words at the ready.
Once we were finished serving we went back into the kitchen to either help Serbelle wash dishes who was diligently washing them the whole time… or help everyone else with the massive amount of eggs that were being hard boiled and needed peeling and/​or refridgerating… Noelle took over Serbelle’s post as the dishwasher but found it difficult not to get us all sprayed with water hehe…
I helped dry a little bit and cleaned up here and there… Noelle called Archie over to help her out at the sink while Kristen and Jason faithfully dried everything that was washed.
I left with the majority to go secure a table at Amici’s and waited for everyone to arrive… we were all tired by then but I’m glad we shared the experience =)

This was my first ever volunteer event like this. I’ve always wanted to serve food at a soup kitchen or similar things whenever Thanksgiving rolls around, but I always told myself… well maybe next year. I am so glad that Noelle put this together and gave us the opportunity to put our free time to use for the good of the community.
Somewhere between peeling hard boiled eggs (which I can still smell by the way), drying a massive amount of dishes and trays, serving up some salmon, and freshening up the cabbage in the stock room while sitting on milk crates, I had a chance to not only talk with some really cool Unilocalies, but see the appreciation on the faces of the people we were serving, and hear the «god bless yous» and watch the one guy dance to serbelle’s vocal stylings which was all completely awesome.
It definitely gives you a case of the warm fuzzies inside hehe.
Sign me up for the next one!

While Noelle has volunteered for a number of years with the Kiwannis group in San Jose, CA to prep, cook and clean up for the homeless patrons of this non-​profit organziation at Julian Street Inn, this was my first venture to do so. A wonderful group of Unilocalers showed up on a Sunday afternoon to prepare a dinner meal to serve at 6:30PM.
Since I was only able to stay for two hours, due to a previous commitment, I asked the kitchen staff lady what could I do that would not be impacted by my leaving after two hours? The kind lady showed me the supply room located across a courtyard that held the donated dry goods and perishables. Here she showed me at least ten large crates of raw cabbage that needed to have the outer leaves peeled away by hand. Since they are short on staff day in and day out, she said this would be a huge help for the upcoming week.
Noelle assigned Archie and I to the task as Noelle went back and forth between the shed and the kitchen where the Unilocalers were in full force (as folks arrived during various time periods). Noelle greeted the new arrivals as they came in and put them to work. Eventually, Noelle, Kristen and Kristen’s boyfriend Jason joined Archie and I in hand peeling the outer leaves of the cabbage heads. By the time I left, all boxes of cabbage were peeled and put in the walk in refrigerator and the discarded leaves in the boxes were put in the area where we were directed to do so by the kitchen staff lady.
I heard from Noelle how wonderful everyone was in every aspect of what they were doing! I wished I could have been there longer than two hours but I will definitely go back on a Saturday or Sunday to roll up my sleeves and plunge right in.
Giving back to the community is one of the best gifts you can do…