Soup Kitchen

St. Martin de Porres on Potrero Street feeds 150-200 people a day at lunchtime. This is no beans and tortillas lunch, either -- yesterday, which was also The Great Plotnik's first day of volunteering, they served 30 gallons of split pea soup, and when that ran out 25 gallons of black bean soup, plus a serious green salad with avocado halves, chicken sausages (or hot dogs) and fresh bread. Plot and the other volunteers washed and dried dishes, stirred soup, served food, washed pots, pans and serving containers, bused tables, swept floors -- and then Plot noticed the upright piano in the corner.

He asked Charlie, his boss "does anybody play that thing?"

"Why? Do you play piano?" Charlie asked.

"Why, yes I do," Plotnik said.

"What kind of music?" Charlie said.

"Whatever you like," Plotnik said.

"Well, you just head on over there, then," Charlie said, and Plotnik got to take off his apron. After ten or fifteen minutes of playing blues and New Orleans shuffles, Plot has another task to do when he goes back next Friday.

This is an inspirational place. The people who come to eat are men and women, young, old, black, white, Latino. Most but not all are scruffy and tooth-deprived, and all are excedingly courteous. They are also very hungry. Many take a full plate of food, carry it to the back of the line and eat it while moving forward again in line. By the time they get back to the head of the line they're ready for another full plate.

The concrete courtyard is filled with trees and flowers in tubs. It is theirs to use to sleep on benches in the sun, or talk to themselves or others, or spill out and reorder the contents of their russacks, or stare off into space. There are bathrooms and showers. Someone cuts hair in the corner.

The Great Plotnik has tried volunteering before -- his work schedule makes it more possible now. But when he tried the music class, the Red Cross and the garden club, he felt like he was just doing busy work. At the soup kitchen, he feels like he is accomplishing something. He likes feeding people. Perhaps he'll learn to make black bean soup for 150.

These are not temporarily down on their luck people. These folks are hard core. Sure they're crazy. But they're also hungry. Plotnik may have found his niche.