San Jose, Community & Justice: Monday

San Jose, Community & Justice: Monday
By Mark Rogers

Group Recap
-Day started bright and early at 7 am in Sobrato. We packed our lunches, ate a little
breakfast, but primarily worked together to wake up.
-The first half of the day we served at the Sacred Heart Community Center. We got
a tour of the facilities and then half of us served in the food pantry and the other
half in the clothes closet. We packed hundreds of bags with food and helped over a
hundred people pick out clothes
-After delicious packed lunches the sacred heart staff led us in a session where
we learned about the context of poverty in Santa Clara county and hunger justice
overall.
-The final part of our day was at Loaves and Fishes cutting fruit, serving soup,
pouring juice, chatting with the (customers?) washing dishes, and overall having a
blast helping serve a meal to over 140 people.
-At the end of our day we arrived at the church we’ll be staying at for the week and
we had a great time making dinner together, eating, laughing, and then reflecting on
the day.

Personal Highlights
High: I had a ton of fun seeing smiles, hearing genuine thank yous, practicing my
Spanish, and serving others throughout the day.
Funny: We had some great laughs at dinner, and the group gets along really well.
Anthony Carnesecca especially is a total riot and goofball and adds endless laughs to
us all.
Deep: The session on hunger justice was really intriguing and inspired me to ponder
the big issues of hunger and poverty not just in our San Jose community, but also in
the world as a whole.
Random: Even though the issues of poverty and hunger in the world are very
intimidating and overwhelming, it was super cool and encouraging to see all the
things that people and organizations in our community are doing for the poor.