Posted on: January 30th 2015
Last Monday, the children from Form 5 visited the soup kitchen at the church on Duke’s Avenue.
The children were keen to volunteer and help those less fortunate than themselves - and helping the local community is our PSHE focus this term.
On arrival we met John Grant who helps to organise all of the meals at the kitchen. He spoke to us about the kinds of people that visit the soup kitchen and he asked us questions about why we thought people might need to come to get a hot meal.
Unfortunately, some of the clients don’t have enough money to feed themselves properly as they have addictions to things such as alcohol, drugs and gambling. We learned that not all of the people who visit are homeless and they range in age and background, some travelling a long distance.
After our initial discussion, we were then split into three groups and each one was given a specific task to complete. The first group helped John to prepare a delicious Scotch Broth that contained lamb, vegetables and barley. Jack and Olivia helped to boil the lamb, Bruno helped with the seasoning and Beth and Oliver poured in and stirred the barley. When questioned, the children said how proud it made them feel to know that they were helping to provide a hot meal for those who had been out in the cold all day or who had not had a proper meal.
The second group were in charge of preparing the vegetables for the broth and they had a big job! Ewan and Elliot had to peel and chop a whole bag of onions which reduced us all to tears! There was a huge pile of leeks to wash and chop and Mrs Pakkos and Mrs Osborne ended up tackling the enormous swedes, which was a real workout as they were tough to chop. Meaghan and Marissa did a great job of chopping up a whole bag of carrots and by the end of the session there was a mountain of vegetables to add to John’s broth.
In the hall, the third group put out six large tables with eight chairs around each. John gave them four bags of bread and the children did a great job of buttering and laying the slices out for the clients to have with a cup of tea on their arrival. The group then laid the tables with cutlery ready for up to 40 guests. John also mentioned that if people arrived late for the meal they would not miss out as they would be given a can of soup or other goods to eat later that evening.
So after a busy 45 minutes, our first session was over and the children said how much they enjoyed helping out. Ben said that the tasks didn’t feel like hard work as they were fun and it was an added bonus that they were also doing a good deed for others.
Form 5 will be making a total of four trips to the soup kitchen so the children will get to experience each of the tasks. The overall feeling from the class was that the opportunity was amazing or ‘epic’ in their own words. They can’t wait to go back and they are also thinking about how else they could help out in their local community.
