YMCA Street Feeding

I started my community service work today. In order to pass CAT, I need to finish 20 hours of community service, and write a journal about it. For community service, I chose to serve at the YMCA street feeding, run by Samaritan Ministries. 

This street feeding is supported by several groups. There is Trinity Methodist Church, who handles the funds and supplies volunteers. Samaritan Ministries was started by this church as well. There is also Kenosis Home, who handles the cooking of the food and rehabilitating anyone who wants to stop living on the streets. Lastly, there is YMCA, who supplies the premises.  

Samaritan Ministries started street feeding 11 years ago, and it has grown from strength to strength. The ministry has committed volunteers, partners, and received timely donations. Despite the growing number of people on the streets who need to be fed, it always had the resources to accommodate the growing number of people.  

Even though the street feeding only started at 1:20pm, I had to be there earlier to attend a briefing, given by one of the regular volunteers. During the briefing, we learned how to serve the food and care for the street people. We were only allowed to serve one plate at a time, to show that unlike a restaurant, we see and care for those whom we serve. Another thing we learned was how to serve the blind. As they are blind, we would need to place the cup in their hand, and guide their hands to the cutleries.  

After the briefing, I helped out with the food preparations. They have been preparing the same meal for the past 11 years: rice, curry chicken, steamed vegetables, potatoes and a banana. For drinks, there is Chinese Tea and Teh Tarik. The meal is nutritious, which is why they have not changed anything. The food is cooked beforehand, then transported to YMCA, where it is packed into individual helpings. 

The food is served on a piece of plastic, on a plate, and it needs to be wrapped up so that the food will not drop out. Wrapping the food up is not as easy as it sounds, and it took me a while to learn. I was amazed at the regular volunteers' speed and accuracy in food preparation. All of them worked like a well-oiled machine. 

Preparing the food took us 20 minutes, and while we were doing so, there was a short worship session and a short sermon for the street people. There were other volunteers who helped to usher the street people to the room where they were seated. Once we were done, at 1:40pm, we started serving the food.  

For the next 50 minutes, we served food and drinks. We served second helpings to those who wanted it and refilled everyone’s drinks. There were also worship songs being played by the music team. It was a happy atmosphere, as I could hear everyone chatting with one another and see smiling faces as they listened to the music. 

At 2:30pm, most of the people had finished eating and were starting to leave. They bid us goodbye and some of them even said thank you. I could tell that they were happy and fulfilled. I think this may be due to the fellowship they had and the food that they ate. 

After getting my card signed, I went home. On the way home, as well as during the rest of week, I reflected about my experience at YMCA. The first thing I realized was that poverty is not something easily identifiable. Many of the street people looked normal, clean and clothed.   

This observation led to a second realization: the fact that there are poor people right in the middle of Kuala Lumpur City Centre, shows a huge disparity in wealth. The poor are walking, breathing and living near such places as Nu Sentral and KL Sentral, where people of stable incomes frequent. It is scary that the poor can go unnoticed amidst such places.  

I also noticed that the poor are mostly the elderly or the disabled. It makes me think and speculate the conditions that led to their current situation. Did their children abandon them? Was there no one willing to take care of them? The poor also need care and attention. The poor are humans, and humans are social creatures. We cannot live in isolation. 

These were difficult observations for me to accept, as they highlighted the fact how selfish humans are. We are so focused on ourselves, on our problems that we do not see how others are suffering. Yes, poverty is not easily identifiable, but there are clear signs of poverty in KL. The existence of street feeding centers proves that poverty exists, and it scares me that most Malaysians are not aware of this.