Feast of Sharing by Julian

Feast of Sharing by Julian - April 2022 Scholarship Essay

Back in 2018 I volunteered for Safeway’s “Feast of Sharing” where people come out and volunteer to help feed the homeless during Thanksgiving. I registered for the event because I had a SGA community service obligations to file. So, me and my fellow SGA officers all registered for the event. Some of the key lessons I’ve learned while volunteering at Feast of Sharing include are to always express gratitude, always treat people with dignity and respect regardless of their social status, and the true value of helping others.

As I was helping to feed the homeless for Feast of Sharing one of the first lessons that I took away from that experience was to express gratitude and to be grateful for all of my current blessings. Sometimes I get caught up in always trying to achieve a different goal. I’m never able to be present in the moment and not look to forward into the future. There’s been times in my life where I’ve been mad at the current situation that I was in. I would ask “why am I in this situation?” but I realized that I shouldn’t complain when others don’t have food to eat and a home to go to. I was shocked to see the line before we started to serve food the people were standing outside in line for miles. People would walk into the convention center with their bags of clothes, and some people were even trying to save some of the food that they had because they didn’t know if they would have food later on. Just having those people stand in line for a meal something that I am granted every day really had an impact on me. Seeing how the people that I was serving expressed gratitude for me serving them their food really allowed me to sit back and reflect. As I was in reflection, I came to the realization that we often take the small stuff for granted, but the small things that we take for granted could be the thing that could change someone else’s whole life.
In addition, I’ve learned while I was volunteering is to always treat people with respect and dignity regardless of their social and economic status. I feel that sometimes society likes to write off the homeless community and doesn’t give them the same respect as they would the CEO of a company. I’ve seen countless times where a homeless person would try to speak to a person that was walking by, and the person wouldn’t speak and was being very rude to them. There was one situation where I was serving a man and he pulled me aside and said thank you most people wouldn’t do this, and I hope God blesses you. Due to how the people that I was serving treated me with so much respect really taught me in that moment that everyone deserves respect and dignity.

Finally, I’ve learned the true value of helping others. As I was serving people their food, I loved seeing their reactions to me serving their food. In that moment they had no worries knowing that they were going to have a warm meal for that day and the next day. I was happy to be able to bring some since of joy and happiness to somebody’s life that day. One day a mentor told me “When a boy enters a room, he looks to be serve but when a man enters a room he looks to serve to better the room”. In that moment I realize that not in taking but in giving to my fellow man. When I’m able to lift someone else up and know you’re making a difference in someone’s life. Moving forward in life every time I enter a room, I will look to try an improve it by any costs. I feel that if each of us try to do that the world will be a better place.

By volunteering at the Feast for Sharing I learned three valuable life lesson that I feel has made me a better person, a better citizen. With this lesson I am able to impact the world around in hopes to make it a better place than when I entered. Which is my goal and purpose in this lifetime.