Visit 4

Colin Burlingham

1/8/10

The Warm Shelter

_____On Friday the eighth, I went to the Westerly Warm Shelter again to help serve to those brave citizens. This was the first time I saw the hired chef and he told me much about the shelter and what he does. On an average day, he said, "there are about 40," and you never know how much food to cook. On some days, you may get two or three, but on other days, the line can be going down the block with no end in sight. There is know pattern on when people come so it is hard to guess how many Ziggy should cook for. Ziggy also mentioned that people donate the same things over and over again. In the summer, they usually get so many hot dogs and burgers, they loose count and around Thanksgiving, all they get is turkey. Last year, they gave 37 turkeys to the St. Mary Warm Shelter because they were so over stocked. After two nights of turkey, I can see how it would get boring. In addition, while I was there, I noticed all the drinks were made by Coca Cola such as coke, sprite, or volt. I asked Ziggy about this and he explained to me these are all the drinks that nobody buys, and since they have expiration dates on them, they can't just put them back on the shelves. So instead of throwing them out, Coca Cola donates the leftover products. While I was there, I also saw a man with a cool beard which was like an upside down trapezoid and it was black at his chin and white at the tip. He was very quiet and I only heard him speak once and he said something about meditating. I felt very bad for him because he had a black eye and a very deep cut over his left eye filled with dry blood. He must have gotten in a fight recently. On my fourth visit, I have learned and saw more than any other visit so far and I am looking forward to next week.