Opp Center Week #7 - Kitchen Drama

Working in the kitchen at the Opportunity Center is really intense, and this week was no different. When food is around, you see a different side of many of the homeless people. They turn from private, mysterious loners to aggressive, greedy, pushy consumers. This pattern is not across the board; some clients are quite calm and even considerate when food shipments come in. But the majority of the clients let their hunger empower their greed. This week I got a taste of it.

Since Gwendolyn left, I have been helping out George in the kitchen. George is himself homeless, but somehow got the job of running the kitchen. He is generally a good worker... though he doesn't keep things as clean and organized, he is generally on task and responsive. I would say he does a satisfactory job. One thing he does not have that I liked about Gwendolyn is that he doesn't pay attention to the details like she did. For example, small things like presenting the food nicely and keeping the counter clean make a big difference on how the clients treat the food and the kitchen in general, in my opinion.

Anyway, today we got a big shipment from Whole Foods. Several boxes of sushi, pastries, salad containers, cookies, and even a few sandwiches which are the gold standard. George starts putting out the sushi and I set out some pastries. George is not particularly concerned that people aren't asking for the sushi, but want to see what else is there. He just continues to pile up the sushi in a way that says "I am telling you what you're going to get, and right now it's sushi." Not very welcoming. He probably wouldn't have even put out the pastries had I not.

At some point a client asks for sandwiches, which he swears he saw in the cart as the food was coming in. He keeps asking George to look in the boxes for the sandwiches. George insists that there aren't any. Do you want sushi or not? The client keeps persisting, and so does George. I know something is up because I was pretty sure I had seen the sandwiches in a box myself. When I get a chance I ask George why he isn't giving out the sandwiches. He says he's saving them. When I ask for who, he says himself.

My first reaction was that that was completely unfair and selfish, but I didn't raise an objection. I'm not really sure if Gina knows/should know about George hoarding the best food for himself, because I wonder if it's something that is taken as a given. After all, George is in need as well. Regardless, George has his backpack in the back counter and is stuffing it with sandwiches and other choice items when no one is looking. There is also one of the clients on the other side of the counter who he hands a big garbage bag and keeps handing him food to put in it as he sort of stands off to the side, trying not to be conspicuous. I wonder if he is a hoarding partner, or is simply helping out a guy he knows.

Also noteworthy was that I got yelled at by a client today. It was the loud-mouthed lady whose name I don't remember at the moment. Anyway, she asked me for the margarine tub, insisting it was in the fridge. I looked there once, and didn't see it. She persisted that it was in there, and I told her it wasn't. Then I checked again and found it on one of the harder-to-see shelves. When I gave it to her, she yelled out "this is what a college education gets you!" and other such lines. Another client tried to stick up for me and to calm her down, but loud-mouth continued to yell and called her a bitch. I didn't take much offense, even when Gina came by and asked me if I was ok, as volunteers may take that sort of thing harshly. I said I was fine. Looking back on the incident, my only regret is that I didn't thank the woman who had tried to stick up for me.