Emmaline Torres

I served at the Claremont Meals on Wheels this week one last time to receive my final hours. My job this week was to clean all the surfaces before we started preparing the food. I had to open all the lunch bags and organize them by sections so that they could be easily filled and delivered. I helped fill the cold lunch bags along with sealing the hot lunches. I was sad to say goodbye because I know that I will miss the people I met. I am glad that I chose to serve at Meals on Wheels because the organization is very clean, and the people are super nice. I will not forget Loretta and hope that I can go back in the future to see her again.

I served at the Claremont Meals on Wheels. My tasks were to put together the cold lunches along with the hot lunches for the seniors. After everything was ready I along with other people got the bags ready to go out with the drivers to be delivered to the senior citizens at their houses. I went on route 5 with one of the drivers. I helped him deliver the lunches. While we were out delivering, we talked about the community and I learned new things about California's history along with why the volunteer I was working with wanted to serve. He told me that he believes in "paying it forward". This was my key takeaway for the day because I thought it was crazy how amazing this guy is. He is retired and decides to use his free time in helping others. Overall, it was a great day.

I did community service at the Claremont Meals on Wheels on Thursday. At first, I was scared to go by myself because I had never been before previously. I met very nice older ladies who have been volunteering for many years. It made sense that older people were working because they are retired and had time to volunteer. One lady left after packing the cold and hot food because she had to be at her job. I couldn't believe that she went out of her way to serve the community before going to work. None of the people volunteering get paid. They do all of it out of the kindness of their heart. It made me feel at ease knowing that there are good people in this world that simply want to help others. My tasks were to fill the bagged cold lunch along with sealing the hot lunches. Once that was finished, I delivered the meals with one of the drivers. All of the people receiving the meals are senior citizens who are unable to cook for themselves or do not have someone to prepare food for them. There was leftover food from the day and if no one took it home then it had to be thrown out. So, I ended up taking home leftover food for my family and me to try. It was not very good. I was very surprised how many older individuals rely on Meals on Wheels for food. It made me sad because I live with my grandparents and would not want them to have to rely on that food to survive. Overall, I had a wonderful experience and cannot wait to go back on Friday to serve again.

This week I worked on the alternative service project which was creating greeting cards for people who might need words of kindness and compassion. I was really excited to write the cards because I am very used to sending cards in the mail to my family members. I knew I wanted to create colorful cards with a few personal drawings on them to make the people I am giving the cards to happy! I picked out a few blank cards that had nothing on it to draw on and add special messages. Accomplishing this assignment made me feel happy knowing that the people going through hard times that I wrote to knew I was there for them. Even for those who were not necessarily sad or sick. I enjoyed writing one to my friend Vanessa so that she knows I care about her. This experience was reciprocated because as I gave the cards to my friends, family, and neighbors, I was able to see their reactions to me handing them the card along with opening it and reading what was inside. This made me feel good knowing that other people know that I will always be there for them if needed. I know that I can also count on those people to be there for me when I need them! :)