Trip to the Samaritan Inn

Before I begin writing, I humbly ask for your patience as this is my first time, er, blogging. But, straight to the trip. Last Saturday afternoon, I met Karen, Tano, and Emma, a fellow club member, at Healy Gates at around 3:25. We headed to the Samaritan Inn, located just North of the main restaurant street in Adams-Morgan, by car (much thanks to Emma!) We arrived at about 3:45 and were greeted at the entrance to the Inn by Juan, an employee, who guided us through the facility.

So, what exactly is the Inn, and why were we cooking there? The former of these two questions I knew a basic answer to before our trip, and the latter, I believe we will continue to uncover its answers daily. Before our trip, I knew the Inn as basically a half-way house for homeless and drug-addicted men and women. But, at the Samaritan Inn, I learned that the specific group of people we were cooking for were in the Intensive Recovery Program, a 28 day, live-in program. There are also two other programs run by the Inn, Transitional Living at the Inns and Service-Enriched Housing Communities; hopefully, I will learn more about these in the future. I will get back to the latter question, why we were cooking for them, later on.

Our dinner menu was chili, fries, tossed salad, corn bread, and warm chocolate cookies with vanilla ice cream for dessert. After acquainting ourselves with the kitchen, we went straight to the cooking (check out our pics!) Karen and Tano were all about the chili and fries, I, the corn bread, and Emma took care of the salad, and just about everything else. We sat in a warm kitchen, and a bit in the hallway to cool down, as the food cooked. Then, after everything was prepared, we loaded all the food onto a rolling cart and headed upstairs to serve it.

Before our group dug into the food, we gathered with the group for prayer. We soon donned our servers’ gloves and got ready, standing behind a buffet to serve portions of the food. Our job serving was primarily to allot equal portions to all the members of the small community. We served about twenty-five people, not including ourselves, who sat along four rectangular tables. After everyone was served, we helped ourselves and joined them in eating, and chatting, getting to know our new acquaintances. The feedback, from the resident, about the meal seemed quite positive. We finished off the meal with warm chocolate chip cookies, served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup- yum!

At the end of the meal, we headed back to school, and were back by the front gates at 6:00.

Since I cannot leave any loose ends, I must return to the question of why we were cooking for these people. The simple answer is to lend a hand to others. The more complex answer will hopefully continue to unfold as Cordon Bleu and Grey continues to build a relationship with the Samaritan Inn and its residents.