Tag: ods

Shelter/Homelessness/Other Things That Are Wrong

This will be a long one, and I will start with my recent visit to the ODS.

When I was there last time, someone who shopped for dinner ingredients bought a jar of spread instead of real butter, and the moment I learned about it, I realized that Chicken Alfredo wouldn’t turn out as it should. Another, and more serious thing, was that when I came, all the residents were gone, since it was one of the first nice days! I do not think that was planned; it’s just that J., who had been my kitchen helper for many months, was gone, and she was the one who had asked for Chicken Alfredo. I knew that if she were still around, she would’ve stayed to wait for me, probably with a couple of her friends.

I left the dinner for the staff (they said that when the kids are back, they’ll eat everything), and, for the hundredth time, thought about whether it is worth coming so irregularly. Then N., a staff member who really cares about me, texted me asking when I was coming next time.

This next time was last Tuesday. Several days earlier, I asked her if she would mind asking the residents what they wanted, but I already knew that she wanted my baked salmon, and I knew I would end up making it. I also promised I would bring a Finnish berry pie (I promised to bake it there in May, but since there was nobody and no butter, I didn’t.)

Then, on Tuesday morning, I fell off the bike and hurt my hand. There was absolutely no way for me to cancel, but I texted N. and told her I would need help cutting and peeling potatoes. When I arrived, another volunteer had organized two kids to peel potatoes and actually taught them how to do it right (it was day one of my injury, and I couldn’t even demonstrate the techniques). With that, it could be an amazing experience, because the kids actually figured that out, and three people ended up peeling enough potatoes (just a little bit less than I would do if I weren’t incapacitated). Unfortunately, it was almost for nothing, because there was not a single drop of milk in either the kitchen fridge or the big storage fridge, and I only found it out when all the potatoes were cooked and mashed. It didn’t even occur to me to check, because milk was on the shopping list, and because we made mashed potatoes so many times that it was not even a question that someone wouldn’t know. Besides, milk has always been in the kitchen fridge, just because it has to be.

One of the staff members said they would go to the nearest Jewel-Osco to get some milk. It would be great if I could figure out the absence of milk right away, but … unfortunately, that was not the only problem. Instead of our usual half-fish “never frozen” salmon from ALDI, there was a large bag of frozen portions. When I opened the bag, I saw that they were indeed frozen and that individual pieces were of very different quality. I tried my best to make something with what I had, but when we took the salmon out of the oven, it was absolutely not what we expected. Well, it was edible, and that’s all I can say. The trip to Jewel Osco took 30 minutes, and I was even able to reheat mashed potatoes with milk, but once again, there was spread instead of butter.

I didn’t even announce that the dinner was ready because the results were miserable. I left my berry pie for everyone to eat, and went home. N. texted me several times the next day asking about my hand, so I gave her the full report, but I also knew it was not just about my hand. I knew she felt bad about the mix-up and was afraid I wouldn’t come again. I could have said that the ODS staff should have paid more attention to the shopping list, and I probably could even feel hurt, if not for one thing.

The thing was, while N and I were texting that morning, she accidentally replied to me with something she meant for someone else, and because of that, I knew there were some problems at the ODS that day. When I arrived, I still could tell that “something was going on.” All the staff waved off my concerns, but I could tell that dinner was definitely not their top priority that day. And that day was not an exception.

The ODS staff solved bigger problems every day, with more and more uncertainties coming up every day. And in general, homelessness in Chicago rises at an alarming rate, with fewer people trying to solve it.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a man hiding in our recycling bin (he made an effort to hide when he saw me approaching, and I pretended I didn’t see him). Afterward, however, I saw him, and it was visible that he had just gotten out of the dumpster by the way he was brushing himself. His shoes were bright red and very memorable, which is why I noticed him around Jarvis Square several times. Then, I saw him sleeping under the overpass on one of my early morning bike rides (once again, because I noticed these shoes sticking out of the black cover). That was one of those moments when you feel incredibly guilty for having any problems at all, or worrying about anything at all, while one of your neighbors has no place to sleep. I thought that the next time I saw him, I would ask if I could help him in any way (he was not asking passersby for change), but I stopped seeing him immediately after that.

There are more and more homeless people around. The encampments along the lake are growing. At the same time, I see many businesses taking measures to keep the homeless away. Not only businesses, for that matter. For example, the so-often-mentioned lack of public restrooms is also rooted in the same issues. Recently, I stepped into the Target on State, which used to be one of the guaranteed places with public restrooms. I saw they were doing major remodeling, and when I walked to the bathrooms, I noticed the access code panel had been freshly installed. And do not take me wrong, I understand that the number of homeless people using these bathrooms for pretty much anything was alarming, and I understand that Target must have heard numerous customers’ complaints. I understand why so many people want “all this mess” to be out of sight – out of mind, but the problem does not disappear because of all these measures. I saw people sleeping on Michigan Avenue. I saw people sleeping in the grass, not even in the tents, along the lakefront. It does not look pretty. But how it looks is not the root cause of the problem.

A Cooking-Related Injury

For the past several times when I came to make a dinner at ODS, J. asked whether we can make tomato soup and grill cheese sandwiches. Both were not in my personal cook book, but both sounded like easy to make (and it was sort of a shame I never made them myself). We made plans, and she specifically asked to make grilled chees sandwiches on the sourdough bread. I told her to make sure to tell the staff who will be shopping for ingredients what they should purchase.

We started with the soup because it was more work. Everything went great except for when we desided to puree the ready soup with the blender. It was “not required” but the recipe suggested that if we would do it, we should puree the soup in batches. Again, averything went great except for the last (the third) batch: I do not know what I did wrong, but when we were done, I couldn’t get the blender off the base of the blender, and somehow turned it the wrong way so that the top got detached, and a super hot soup pored down. I tried to catch at least some of it (my mistake), and a as a result, the half of my left hand got burned: it all turned red and was hurting really badly. And unfortunately, they didn’t have the anti-burn lotion in their first aid box.

Fortunately, there was an ice box on the counter, and I had en empty plastic bag in my backpack, so for the next hour-plus, I was holding a bag of ice over my left hand, changing the ice every 15 minutes. After an hour, I saw definite improvement, and knew that there was no permanent damage. Honesty, it was the first time in my life the burning made so little harm. My hand hurt after I had to throw away the last portion of melted ice when I was on the train, but it lasted for a very short time. By next morning, I didn’t feel anything, and I only a very small portion of my left tumb had some pink on it, the rest of the skin was fine.

Oh, and we made the sandwiches after the mess was cleaned, and they turned out amazing! I will definitely make them at home, and maybe I will even give another try for a tomato soup!

Egg Coloring At ODS

Same as the Christmas cookie decoration, the Easter egg coloring is an activity I do with ODS residents every year, and every year, we have tons of fun.

The most popular decorating kits are the ones with faces and hair, and also, the “golden” eggs appeared to be a hit!

ODS Dinner

This time, it was less than two months ago, but I still felt that it had been a long time since I was at ODS. Also, this whole week, I felt really tired to the point I started to question whether my energy resources are indeed endless.

There were a lot of good moments: we had three giant salmon halves, so there was enough fish for everyone, and more, and everyone was ecstatic. J. acquired new lemon/pepper seasoning, which was absolutely perfect for salmon, and we used it, and I want to get a similar one for myself. By now, J. knows all the steps and does not wait for my directions; I told her that soon I will just observe and let her do the rest.

I peeled the whole bag of potatoes and made mashed potatoes, and it was all consumed! Now I am wondering, how much will be too much, and whether there will even be too much.

Still, I couldn’t stay longer because of how tired I was, which produced slight disappointment. Usually, it goes like this: first, the residents eat, thank you, and you think that’s it, and after a while, they turn to conversation. I learned not to run out twenty minutes after dinner is ready, but on Tuesday, I just couldn’t stay longer, so I apologized and said I would be back in two weeks.

We are going to decorate Easter eggs next time, and this activity can be a huge success or a huge miss, and I had both. I ordered more dinosaur decorating sets and more “faces” sets, so I hope it will be exciting 🙂

Christmas Cookies At ODS

On Tuesday, I took a whole box of non-decorated cookies, along with several tubes of icing and multiple containers of sprinkles, to the ODS for our traditional cookie-decorating session.

As I already mentioned, this year was not smooth, and I was not sure how many residents would be there, and how many would be interested (because there is always this balance between these teens being teens and being “too cool” for cookie decorating and not having enough fun when they were kids). So I started decorating with one of the girls, J., who is always ready to cook with me. Then one of the male residents joined and decorated a cookie, and said he was going to eat it. I asked to take a picture first:).

Then one staff member, J.L., joined, and she was not even trying to hide her excitement and enthusiasm :). And all of a sudden, the rest of the residents pulled up to the kitchen island, eager to participate. Some of them did a rather clumsy job, some – a very neat one, but everyone was creative:).

One of the relatively new residents, M, asked J.L.: if you could get anything in the world for Christmas, what would you wish for? And J.L., who is young, energetic and anything but sentimental, replied: If I could have anything in the world, I would want my grandma back! M. looked at her and said: You know, that’s what I would want, too! I would want my grandma back!

It struck me, since one more time, it reminded me about the life expectancy gap which everyone is talking about…

I said, that if I could get anything for Chirstmas, I would want the war i Ukraine stop, and Russians being out and never come back. They nodded: yes, they kill people, even children!

We kept talking about Christmas, and I mentioned Finland, and it turned out that most of them knew about Finland, and the “real Santa living there.” I told them about the snow that falls quietly, and about the granite crumbs used instead of salt on the roads, and mentioned how many people in the US don’t even know that Finland is a country. M stared at me in disbelief: Even I know! If many people don’t, I am seriously concerned!

Everyone loved how the cookies turned out. At some point, I thought I should have brought more cookies (I had more), but in the end, it was just the right number. Here is what was not eaten by the time I was ready to leave (as “too pretty to eat”):

.. and it was one of the best nights in the shelter I had this year!

And A Very Different Dinner

The last time I was at ODS, I spoke with one of the staff, N, who always supports my efforts to make a difference and loves my cooking, especially baked salmon. We agreed to try to make a baked salmon dinner when I am back from the conference. Although I am “not supposed” to communicate with staff directly, with the absence of a coordinator, it was my only option.

Everything worked great, and it turned out that no matter how infrequently I come to the ODS these days, everyone remembers baked salmon :). All ingredients were purchased, except that I asked to buy eight lemons, and there were only two (although big ones :))

In addition to making baked salmon and mashed potatoes (which are also an all-time hit), I brought half of the apple cake, which I baked on Sunday, and the amount of praise and the number of “thank you”-s was way above average.

That’s all I need. I am happy that I made other people happy 🙂 and received so much good vibes!

ODS

Yesterday, I was going to make dinner at the ODS, but then it turned out that the current volunteer coordinator had put in their notice, and forgot or didn’t have time to purchase supplies for making dinner. I went to the shelter anyway, picked up some sweets from Vanille, and spent two hours in conversations with staff and residents. There were too many private moments in these conversations, so I am not sharing them except for one thing: I was thinking about taking a break from volunteering for the Night Ministry, but I am not going to do it.

Even though I am not there often enough, I still can do something good. And a little bit is better than nothing.

Yesterday was a very emotional and a very long day, and the whole week seems to be long and emotional. The fear of the National Guard’s appearance dominates the environment and touches my life in many different ways. Between escorting, which I did twice this week, ODS volunteering, and conference attendees coming from abroad, and all the conversations I have with people, it’s almost too much.

However, I have a hope (maybe too soon) that Chicago’s readiness to fight back stopped the worst that could happen. We’ll have to see, but I really hope…

ODS

As I keep saying, there are more misses than hits with ODS dinners, but it was really good today. First, I met a resident who had been there for a while, and we had several in-depth conversations over the past few months. Also, I know that these conversations are important for him, and even if it’s a small part of his life, it’s a positive part :).

There were just a few people when I arrived, so at first I thought that we would have to make pizzas only with the staff helping me, but then the residents started to appear, and a couple of late arrivals expressed interest in making their own pizza. I started the oven again, and helped with the process, and it was a very good new connection.

The kids in the shelter continue to surprise me. It so often happens that some of the residents have previous experience in catering or hospitality, and often are more comfortable cooking for a large number of people than I am. Today, one of the boys told me that he worked in the pizzeria before, and I could tell by watching his professional pizza slicing. I ended up asking for his recommendations on how long to keep pizza in the oven (the ODS oven functionality has always been imperfect, to put it mildly).

Gingerbread Houses With ODS

I did Gingerbread houses with my kids when they were kids, many once or twice, and I thought I was not into it. But when a staff member in the West Town Shelter suggested that I do this with the youth in ODS, I felt I should give it a try. She suggested we do it together with another volunteer. That volunteer spent a lot of time asking me whether I knew she was a jew and had nothing to do with Gingerbread houses, and I thought this whole thing was not going to work.

I purchased four houses, and I thought that there would be at max one or two residents interested and that we would end up doing houses by ourselves, but in fact, I regretted I only got four – we could use at least six if not eight, and the residents’ creativity and patience were astonishing.

ODS

As I already said multiple times, things have not been working with ODS recently, and I had so many last-minute cancellations that I almost lost hope that something would ever happen. In October, the volunteer coordinator and I made another attempt to schedule things, and I sent to her a list of dates when I could come. Then there were no communications for three weeks, so the day before I was supposed to come I emailed her again asking to confirm that we were still on.

There was no response to my email. I had the cell number of the previous coordinator, but I couldn’t find the new coordinator’s phone. At some point, I had a crazy thought that I should just go there, but having what I have in my life these days, I thought I would be devastated to lose another two hours for nothing, and after some hesitations, I left home.

I was already walking home from the train station when I saw a text on my phone with a contact “maybe <her name>” (which meant that she mentioned her number in one of her emails). The message read: When are you planning to arrive?

We had a rather dramatic exchange of texts, and I frantically checked spam and trash, but there was no email found. We immediately agreed to communicate through texts in the future and agreed for me to come a week later. I felt horrible because I thought that it was all my fault, and if I was really committed to coming to the ODS, I should have either tried to find her cell number or gone to the ODS without confirmation. I felt that I was so sure (subconsciously) that it wouldn’t work again, that I was expecting this arrangement to fail. I am not sure whether I’ve explained it thoroughly, but I tried :).

Nevertheless, we agreed on November 14. I had an event I wanted to attend on that day (the Beat meeting), but I decided I had to break the curse of ODS events not happening. I confirmed on Wednesday evening by text, and then on Thursday there was another text: “There are going to be 2-4 people, how about we switch to dessert or just hanging out?”

I replied that it was OK and that I would pick desserts from Vanille. So, finally, I made it to ODS. The staff was amazing, everybody loved Vanille pastries (and it ended up being way more than four people in!). Usually, I do not like to hang out just for the sake of hanging out, but as it turned out, the youth wanted just to hang out and talk, and we all had a great time.

Now, I am very cautious, and I am not saying that it’s a success, because the last several months were very unpredictable. But one thing for sure – I do not want to give up on the Night Ministry.