November 7,2011

In the words of a McKenna's Wagon volunteer driver, Fred.

It was Memorial Day, 2010. My wife joined me that day to serve on the van I was driving. It was the end of the month, so there was a huge crowd. At the second stop, the line was very long. I was serving sandwiches and desserts from the side of the van.

When I looked up, I saw a grandmother at the standing beside the van with three grandchildren, the oldest was maybe 4 or 5 years old. The people in line had moved them to the front to get fed first.

The look of sadness in the children's eyes broke our hearts. We loaded them up with food and saw their eyes brighten, ever so slightly.

That family really struck me. What was their story? How did they get to this point? What were they doing on the other days? Though these questions will likely never be answered, I know that on that day, those kids went away with a hot cup of hearty soup and enough sandwiches to get them through a couple of days.

It made me realize how blessed we are and how important McKenna's Wagon, the mobile soup kitchen from Martha's Table, is to the people they serve. It may be one of the few things that these folks can count on in their life. I'm blessed to be a part of it.

One in six people in the United States are living in poverty and at any given time there are about 12,000 homeless individuals on the streets of DC.