Did you know that dozens of cities have made it illegal to give food to homeless people? You can now get ticketed for simply giving food to a hungry person on the street. This fact was particularly startling to me because I serve food to homeless people quite often at a soup kitchen. I know it isn’t the same because it’s not in public, but the idea still shocked me. I volunteer at this soup kitchen, usually once a week. I have been going there for over a year now and it has certainly showed me how fortunate I am, but that’s what everyone says when they go to a soup kitchen.

I started volunteering at the soup kitchen with my brother, who had already been going there for a while. The original reason I was going was for service hours for school. My plan was to just go a few times, get my service hours, and be done. The typical volunteer there serves food to people. The very first time I went, I was given the job of working the drink cart. Basically, I served juice and milk to whoever wanted it. It was a very simple task. Some of the people that come there are homeless. Some of them are struggling families. All of them are people in need of a hot meal and a place to rest for an hour. When they come in, they’re excited to be there and see us. Although some of them look like they aren’t doing so well, we always take care of them.

Getting back to my story, the first time I went there was in the middle of winter, right before Christmas. It was cold, and for the people coming to the soup kitchen, it was not exactly a jolly time for them. It made me think about my Christmas compared to theirs and it made me feel bad for the kids there, but what could I do? I can’t offer them much, at least not anything tangible, but I can always offer my time and effort. At that point, I decided that I definitely want to come back here, whether or not I need the service hours. Something else that I’ve taken away from all this, is a feeling of satisfaction and appreciation that I don’t feel very often. When I go there, people are happy to see me. People are thankful that I showed up again. They know my name and they know that I am more than happy to help them. It truly feels good to know that you brightened someone's day. So maybe I volunteer and do community service, but I would be doing that anyway throughout my life, so I don’t think that’s the most special thing about all this. The thing that I find very special and unique is what it does for me and what it says about me. I’ve realized that the feeling of doing good for people can be a better payment than any amount of money. You can’t buy that feeling.

I have never regretted a single second of my volunteering. No matter what I might have missed, I am always glad I went. One thing I’m not glad about are the laws against giving food to the homeless. It's disappointing to think that the government would want to prevent us from helping each other. There isn’t a whole lot I can do about the laws, but one thing I know for sure is that I will be going back to the soup kitchen for many years to come.