Today (03/08/16) was our first day of serving the Chicago community. We started off our day early at Saint James Food Pantry at 9 a.m. and ended around 2 p.m. The Saint James Food Pantry in Chicago serves in a food desert area, serving 5 communities and 2 zip codes.
During our time here, we did tasks such as organizing food shelves, to packing meals, and prepping meals. I personally did many tasks such as pick out the good fruits from the bad, and set out the grocery table and help divide/portion the food.
One of the Saint James staff, Cathy asked us questions while we were doing our tasks, “Why are we here? Who are we serving?” During our lunch break we each had our chance to speak to the group and tell about what we reflected on. For my reflection, I always knew I had a heart for serving communities, and the future generation. But one thing that really stuck out to me while serving was the service to my peers. Cathy told us we were such a focused hard working group, and we did the job fast and well. I realized she saw that because we all had a heart for serving, and not only to the community and the organization, but to one another. We worked as a team and got the job done.
We are always trying to serve the bigger picture, but once one starts looking at the smaller picture first and work on that, it can lead to a bigger impact than one may think.

Now it is day 4 of the immersion trip, and I am glad to say I know my teammates and we all have become so close.  I know the closer we get, we can only make more of a difference in this community (Chicago) and back in our University city, Springfield, MO.