Reported by Han Li
On Valentine’s Day, many people celebrate with their loved ones by going to dinner or spending time at home. “Humanitarian Care” Team Leader Han Li and member Ming Li of the Greater Princeton AYLUS (GPA) decided to spread love by serving at Cornerstone Community Kitchen in Princeton (PCCK) on February 13th, the night before Valentine’s Day of 2019. They helped hand out meals to guests who visited the food kitchen for food.
PCCK is a food kitchen who regularly serves dinner once a week on Wednesdays, and provides a free clothing store, health screenings, and English courses. Their goal is to help people in poverty and try to find solutions to curb poverty in the Greater Princeton area.
This Wednesday the kitchen’s dining room was decorated in pink and red, and balloons were given to the kids who came. For dinner, the kitchen offers hot meals as well as ready-to-eat meals like sandwiches. The hot meal dishes include Spaghetti with Meatball, Gourmet Vegetable Medley, Mixed Fruit Salad. Additionally, assorted breads and desserts are served. Guests could even ask for vegetarian or allergy-free options.After the dinner, bagged breakfasts was also provided to guests in need.
As usual, there were dozens of guests, mostly consisting of elders and local residents in need, on the night. Over the two hours serving period (4:30-6:30pm), they quietly came and sat around different tables, which were well addressed with metal silverware and formal dishes in advance.
Then, each volunteer server was assigned a table to serve food and clean dishes afterwards. While serving food, Han even noticed that there was a volunteer sitting with a group of young kids in a separate table, playing games with them after they ate. Han and Ming both observed that the guests were very happy and enjoying the experience in PCCK. Many guests wished a happy Valentine’s Day to all the volunteers.
Valentine’s Day should not only be used to express love, but also to spread love. Han and Ming were happy to have this chance to serve others on Valentine’s Day and wanted other GPA members also to go and help out from now on.
A Note from President Cassie Tammy Wang: Congratulations Han and Ming Li. We encourage all GPA members to serve community in any ways, and Humanitarian Care project is a perfect one for everyone to start with!
