Second Sunday Supper Recap (11/13)

For November's Second Sunday Supper, we had two special guests from Rachel's Women's Center who came to speak about their experiences with the center and all the services the center provides.

Rachel's Woman's Center is run by Catholic Charities by the Diocese of San Diego. The center provides services to homeless women including medical screening, alcohol and drug recovery, clothing, shelter, classes, and meals. The young adults involved in Bridging the Food Gap met volunteers and workers of Rachel's while handing out bread, sandwiches, and other food downtown.

Bambi, has been volunteering for the center for many months. During the day she works at Donovan Correction Facility as a Corrections Officer, mostly with men accused and convicted of violent crimes. At night and weekends, she often finds herself at the center or gathering supplies from local vendors, stores, family members, and friends for the center. Bambi told the group of young adults how grateful she was for the bread donations that have been consistently delivered on a bi-weekly basis to the center ever since the Bridging the Food Gap project was started this summer.

Janine, an apprentice working at the center described her roller coaster journey to us openly. She arrived at Rachel's in 2005 needing a place to stay and a place to recover from her alcohol addiction problems. She explained that after a fallout with her sister in 2009, she went back to Rachel's with a new determination. She is now an apprentice with the center, and now works with women who remind her of herself just a few years prior.

It was such a blessing to meet these women. They came early to celebrate mass with us. The Gospel was the parable of the Talents, and the message Father John Paul preached was that we should not live in fear and bury our talents in the ground. If we remove fear and paranoia, we can truly serve, and love openly. And real change can happen like in the case of these two women who were not afraid to share their talents with others.

If you would like to learn more about Rachel's Women's Center go to their website or you can get involved in Bridging the Food Gap by checking out this blog post with all the information you need.