Volunteer Community at the Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa

I'm sitting outside right now doing my Beyond Limits homework. So I am in The Zone. I want to answer the question about WHY I do this. "Why" questions work for me. They make me think deeper. My life word is "significance." I can't live without it. Since I retired from being an ED nurse after 43 years (actually, it is precisely two years ago today!), I have searched for my significance. I did some volunteering with Acts of Kindness on the Joe Rodota trail and saw firsthand what it is like for homeless people to survive in their plastic tarp hovels. As a triage nurse in the hospital, I never had gotten to witness their situations. I only heard about their problems. Part of me didn't believe it could be that bad. Walking on the trail after a rainstorm where everyone's belongings got soaked, I saw what it was like to be out there in the cold and rain and wind. It was horrible. Just horrible. That's why I do what I do. A friend and I use...

I have been a part of the team cooking/ preparing food since April 2020. Before training and joining this team, I was doing what I could to get snacks, sandwiches, fruit, and love to the hundreds of the unsheltered community through grassroots connections. Our PB&J sandwiches were legendary, and we can do better! And DO. We do better! With hot meals, nutritional sides and salads, And deserts. All determined by donations from farmers, backyard gardeners, gleaners foods, farm to table growers with a shrunken restaurant clientele, Redwood Empire food bank, and private donations. Each cooking day and menu is determined by what is available and donated—or even purchased at Safeway! I love doing this service with my spiritual community. It is the Center of my social life during this time of COVID. Outside of Zoom! It is a sacred service anchored in prayer and love. We will likely never meet the people we cook for, yet their lives and well being are very present in my awareness. We a...

Hi, I'm Jim Strand, and when I first heard of this project, I felt called to participate because Los Guilicos Village is about 5 minutes from my house. I thought we'd be cooking there. How could I pass up an opportunity to be of service to some of the folks recently, and rudely, evicted from the Joe Rodota trail encampment, AND have it be so convenient? St. Vincent de Paul Well, it turned out we would cook at the St. Vincent de Paul kitchen in SR, but I was already hooked. The idea that, even though these tiny cabins didn't solve the problem of shelterlessness in SoCo, I could be a part of an effort to provide a substantial, healthy, hot meal for 60-70 people on Tuesdays. I've worked with Kathryn Jurik for over 25 years on the altars for the annual world peace meditations at the Center and know her to be a creative and capable leader. She was also already actively involved with this same community, so when she put out a request, it was easy to jump in. I missed the fir...

My feelings about cooking for the Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa food for the shelterless group run deep and with a lot of gratitude. Having to back away due to the Coronavirus has been very difficult for me as I get so much joy from the service we do. Cooking is fun for me, and I know that I can do a lot to help out.  Taking the time to go to the food bank and pick up food because I have a truck is just another opportunity to be in service. The place is just a mass of human movement, striving together to get food to all those in need in our community! Our little group when it started and the St. Vincent kitchen was so much fun. With all the wonderful donations we received through the community during the Joe Rodota trail time, it was simply amazing what great meals we were able to provide for the people. We all came together every week to work, to make a ton of good food in high spirits. When the virus hit, we all hung in there and kept it going, and so many of you a...