Soup Kitchen Episode 4: A New Coat

Kash and Sevan arrived a few minutes before 4pm for the early shift at Ealing Soup Kitchen. There were no volunteers present yet, but there was a client waiting patiently 2 hours before service started. A few minutes later, the organiser Emma arrived and they got to work setting up the hall.

First up was setting up the tables to fill the snack and shopping bags, then bringing in more supplies for the bags from Emma's car. A local councillor and 2 aides arrived to help - perhaps - Kash and Sevan fill the snack bags. So far, so normal for an early shift.

Next, Kash and Sevan were transported back to the Cupboard of Doom (TM) to sort clothes. A pleasant surprise was that most of the snack bars that they'd sorted last month had disappeared, making space for new crates of unsorted snack bars... sigh. Luckily, some of the newly arrived bars were being shipped out to the Caribbean, which, while a bit unusual, meant less future work for them.

Today's task in the cupboard was to separate out winter clothes which wouldn't be needed for a few months from the lighter summer and autumn stock. That sounds simple, but they had no idea of what type of items they might find and how to sensibly split them into storage bags. Over an hour they moved clothes into temporary Ikea bags, then back into 4 winter bags. Women's coats, women's jumpers, men's winter and accessories.

Coming to the end of their shift, Kash and Sevan were ready to put their newly filled bags on the shelves in the Cupboard of Doom. Sevan grabbed the Henry hoover to shrink the vacuum bags down, only to find that the bags let all of the removed air back in. They decide to jam all of the crates and bags onto the shelves any way that they'd fit, leaving a giant game of tetris for the next group when the clothes and food currently being offered to clients would come back to the store room. 😈

While waiting for Madhan and Nishy to arrive for the second shift Kash and Sevan picked up roles front of house, offering food and clothes to clients, including some special coronation cupcakes. 10 minutes later, Madhan and Nishy were tagged in to take over the good work serving the Soup Kitchen's clients.