HomePlate: New Beaverton Site – Week 46

Where I Went:

HomePlate, the fantastic non-profit that serves “couch-surfing” teens of Washington County, recently opened a third location at Merlo Station High School in Beaverton. Now, homeless kids can find a place to hang out and have a hot meal on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays of each week.

First Impressions:

When HomePlate announced the opening of their new Beaverton site, a request was sent for groups to commit to serving dinner on a monthly basis. I knew this was just the thing for our church, Kaleo, to be a part of.

Once the word was out, church friends contacted me saying they’d like to help. I decided to use the chicken bowl menu from the last time we provided dinner, so the planning part had already been done.

The Job:

Ten of us showed up to prepare and serve food last Wednesday. Setting up in a school cafeteria rather than a church kitchen was a tad intimidating to me at first. I didn’t understand the ovens, the warmers, and the magical dishwashing machine where soap is automatically dispensed and the entire cycle lasts 4 minutes.

Thankfully, a school employee was onsite to show us the ropes. Turns out, preparing food is easier in a sanitized school kitchen. Most everything is disposable. (Okay, maybe not good for the environment, but I can only concentrate on one cause at a time.)

Once we got into a groove, serving ran like clockwork. Until we ran out of food. Shoot. We brought more than we had last time, but there were a lot of hungry kids this week!

My friend, Kim, and I went to Costco and picked up 2 more rotisserie chickens. After a 15 minute delay, we were back to serving dinner.

I so admire and appreciate the work HomePlate does. My year of serving every week is almost finished, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop helping others. For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be praying about the projects I’ve been involved with and pick a few where I’d like to make a bigger time commitment. HomePlate will be on that list.

How To Help:

HomePlate needs you. Whether you’d like to cook and serve dinner, come set up a craft for the group, or donate some of the items on the wish list – you can make a difference in someone’s life.