SOOP + MVS = Inspiration for all

Mennonite Voluntary Service is sometimes in the business of staffing soup kitchens, but in late June, MVS needed SOOP staff in their kitchen.

In late June, a call went out to SOOPers: Cooks needed for the MVS orientation. Orientation was scheduled for August 7–13, but that turned out to be plenty of time to find three couples to work in the kitchen at San Antonio Mennonite Church, planning meals and feeding 65 people three square meals a day.

MVS orientation is a week-long event in which new participants, usually fresh out of college, learn what to expect in their service placements. For the past few years, Mission Network staff have handled both the orientation activities and the meal planning and prep, but the workload was overwhelming. This year, they decided to ask Arloa Bontrager, SOOP program director, to help find some volunteers to lend a hand.

Elizabeth and Ron Martin (Wooster, Ohio), Anne and Bruce Hummel (Millersburg, Ohio), and Bob and Jennifer Koehn (Cordell, Okla.) answered the call. All three couples came to San Antonio a few days early to get oriented and to prepare for their assignment. Once the MVSers arrived, the SOOP team spent long hours in the kitchen, often working from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., with only a few short breaks in between.

“The SOOPers all worked very well with each other,” said Kristen Mast, associate director of MVS. “Having them there alleviated so much stress, and they were so capable and organized.”

Download full-resolution image.

MVSers and SOOPers also benefited from getting to know each other. After each meal, several MVSers were assigned to help the SOOP volunteers with cleanup. And the SOOPers got to read the results of the MVS orientation group discussions and the volunteer info sheets to learn more about where the participants were coming from, where they were headed for their placements, good books they were reading, and more.

 “Many youth would stop by the kitchen to thank us and chat,” said Elizabeth Martin. “When the VSers would help with dishes, they would tell us what they had been doing and what they were looking forward to.  We loved when they shared about themselves.”

Immanuel Sila, MVS director, asked Anne and Bruce Hummel to share how they’ve lived out their call to serve. The Hummels have done several service terms throughout their lives, beginning as young adults.

“They only shared for about five minutes,” Mast said, “but when they were finished, the MVS staff said to each other, ‘OK, we’re done!’ The Hummels had said everything we wanted to tell the MVSers about the value and importance of serving.”

MVSers expressed their appreciation regularly, thanking the cooking crew, willingly pitching in to clean up, and expressing their appreciation for the good food on their post-orientation evaluations.

“We’re so pleased that it worked out to have MVS orientation be a SOOP assignment,” Bontrager said. “The two groups seemed to inspire each other and form an intergenerational connection because of a shared commitment to serve.”

 ###