San Francisco Day Two!

Hey everyone! It's Rachael and Jasmine here today! This morning we were up before the sun, leaving the hostel at about 6:30 am to head out to Glide. Glide is a church based non-profit organization that has an amazing program set up for serving meals to the community. We arrived there after about a ten minute walk and right away met some of the awesome workers at Glide. We started off by setting up the tables with beverages and helping prepare the food. It was really interesting to meet and talk to all the great people involved in this organization. Many of the volunteers live in the community and frequently donate their time at Glide. They serve over 600 people each meal time, every single day. Once the people arrived, it got pretty busy. Both of us were involved in serving on the floor, which meant we helped out with cleaning and refilling drinks, along with talking to the people from the community. It was such an amazing and humbling experience. It really opened our eyes to the topic of food justice, and how easy to make a difference. It's stunning how easily people's situations can change, and it is important to be respectful and understanding of everyone. Although it's great to be volunteering in San Fran, it's also important that we realize there are so many people so close to home that need our help also. We hope we can continue with our serving learning in the future at home.

After serving breakfast and eating it at Glide, we went to the church service in the upstairs of the church. It is a Methodist domination church, but definitely not the traditional church services we all were used to. Right in the beginning of the service, a man stood up and said "Here at Glide, nobody s tolerated, but EVERYBODY is celebrated." This quote really had an impact on our group because it hit home for us that everyone is this congregated was accepted and loved for who they were. Many of the groups the church provides are based on helping domestic abuse victims and promoting support LGBT community. There was a speaker named Susan who told us her amazing story of how she found Glide and got over her addictions, found a place to stay, and began school, all with the help of the Women's Shelter. There are classes about how women should learn how to stop just surviving and to start living. It is so important that these types of organizations exist because everybody needs a safe place in life. The service itself was so full of life and love. There was a huge amazing choir that sang and lots of clapping and hugs. Overall, none of us could stop smiling and the happiness and joy was radiating off of every single face in the packed congregation.

After church we decided to go on an exploration adventure. Walking in the streets of San Francisco was a cool experience. It was sad and eye-opening, though, because the numbers of homeless people are so large. A statistic we read from a street paper sold to us by a women we met on the streets said that there are 1,100 beds for 14,00 homeless people. This leaves a vast majority of homeless people without a place to sleep at night. This is a lot different than the Twin Cities because in Minnesota the weather is such a main issue that housing is almost more important than food, whereas in California the main focus is feeding the people.  We had a great time exploring, and after supper we had a very touching and observant reflection. This is important to the learning part of service learning, and wow did we all gain so much knowledge and growth. It's hard to believe we've only had one day of service so far, and we're all very much looking forward to what the rest of the week has in store for us!

1st Saturday in San Francisco

Hey, y'all, it's Saraya!  It was super hectic yesterday what with flying and getting situated at the hostel.  We headed out from Sorin around noon and landed around 5:30 (I think).  We're two hours behind MSP time so everyone's a little out of sorts.  It was awesome traveling with the Q group, 24 people trying to figure out their way around a new airport and transit system is a little hilarious.  Jessica got stuck behind on the airport tram but don't fret! We were all back together in under 5 minutes.

Kiefer, Lothy, Saraya, and Brianna on the BART *picture from Caty Bishop*

After all that travel everyone was pretty hungry so after settling at the San Francisco City Center Hostel a group of 14 people from our trip and the Q trip headed out to Cala foods.  The hostel is located in the Tenderloin neighborhood.  Glide Church is where we served this morning, Sunday, and attended a service.  It's located about 6 blocks away from the hostel.  What I've seen so far is beautiful and incredibly diverse.  I can't wait to explore it more!

The grocery group outside the hostel *picture from Caty Bishop*

Anyways, we headed out to Cala Foods which is the grocery store that last year's trip used.  We walked up this marvelously steep hill and found ourselves looking at a shut down Cala Foods.  That was pretty disheartening.  However, a wonderful gentleman pointed us down the street quite a few blocks to Whole Foods.

How interesting that we can no longer shop at a local grocery store and instead visited a national chain.  In any case, we ran around looking for all the ingredients and ended up doing pretty well.  At the end of the trip we totaled our goods to (approximately) 4 meals for 24 people at $4/person.  I hope that's the right number we came up with.  Not too shabby.  It was great having the two trips intermingle and help prepare a large group meal of tacos.  We ended up eating at 10:30 (i.e. 12:30 MSP time).

Some other things to note: traveling down the street with 24 people and their luggage is a ridiculous sight, there are a lot of Irish accents on the streets of San Francisco on St. Patty's day, Leprechaun is terrifying and our hostel's way of celebrating, and as exhausted as everyone may be we're all super pumped for the rest of the week.

Kiefer

Hey friends, I'm Kiefer Anderson, third year, studying Psychology, Comm and Religion.  I feel blessed to have the opportunity to give back to the community of San Francisco.  I'm grateful to have been chosen and am excited for what we can accomplish in Cali.  I chose this trip for the Christian perspective because it is my duty as a believer to jump at opportunities to give back to those who may need a helping hand.  I wish to give back to organizations, such as food shelters, that have definitely helped me as I was growing up.  I know for me I need to think of food as a privilege and realize how blessed I am to know where my food source comes from on a daily occurrence.  I want to be there for those who may not have that same privilege.  I'm stoked for the trip, friends, and to grow with each and every one of you.  God bless!

-kiefdachief

Jessica Intro :)

Hello!! My name is Jessica Goodsell and I’m a first year student at Hamline. I’m majoring in Finance and Accounting (super exciting, I know :)), and I am so thankful that I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to go on this trip!!  Family and friends are extremely important to me, and I love building relationships—which is why I’m really pumped to serve with new friends in San Francisco! I chose to go on a catalyst trip because service has always been an important part of my life, and I love the concept of service learning. I chose the food justice trip because I feel like hunger is a social injustice that is often overlooked and unnoticed, but is extremely relevant all over the world. I hope to serve the people of San Francisco, and I hope I can take what I learn from my experiences there and apply them in my city.

Hello, I'm Kyrie!

Hello

Anna:.

Shalom team,

I am Anna Gresser and I am currently a third year majoring in Social Justice and Religion and minoring in Education and Anthropology. I love meeting people, laughing, spending time outdoors and intimate cuddling. I am really looking forward to this trip because I went on it last year with Lothy and Nancy and had an amazing time connecting with the people of San Fran, Hamline students (both Food Justice and LGBTQIA peeps) and comparing the issue of homelessness in San Fran and the Twin Cities. I can't wait to be with y'all!

Anna

Rachael's Intro =]

Hey everyone!

I'm Rachael Mills and I'm extremely excited to go on this trip with all of you guys! I am a freshman this year, and I am double majoring in biology/pre-med and psychology. I work at the c-store so you may have seen me around. I like to spend my free time playing piano, running, and hanging out with friends. I enjoy traveling a lot and I really like to meet new people. I can't wait to get to know everybody on the trip and all of the people we are going to meet together. Food justice is such an interesting topic to me because I believe that everyone has a right to have enough to eat and it pains me to think that so many people do not.

I was very excited when I heard about the catalyst trips because I think it is a great way to spend my spring break. I can't wait to give back to the community and grow as a person. It's crazy that it's only a few weeks away now! San Francisco here we come! =]