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Daeton Taylor
Why The Soup Kitchen?
Why The Soup Kitchen?
Understanding the reason why a man would take time out of his daily life to spend 30-40 hours a week serving people who at one point he was afraid to even approach.
Jeff is probably one of the kindest men I have met in a very long time. The first time I showed up to help in the soup kitchen, my wife and I were a bit hesitant as we waited outside in the rain for 20 minutes trying to figure out exactly how to get in. Right as we were about to leave, Jeff came running to the door panting and apologizing for not hearing us sooner, all while simultaneously trying to juggle 8-10 cans of food in his arms. He ran back inside, quickly uncanned all of the food, and came to shake both of our hands. “Thank you so much for coming! It has been a crazy day today and I need as much help as I can. Here is how you sign in. Here are your aprons, and I need some help unpackaging the food for lunch tomorrow.” As my wife and I began doing what we were told, after a couple of minutes of unpacking frozen hotdogs, Jeff popped around the corner and said, “My name is Jeff by the way. It’s nice to meet the two of you. Thank you so much for coming to help.” My wife and I had such a great experience while serving there, that by the time we left, we were already excited to go back.
The next time we showed up, Jeff greeted us the same way he did before — with a smile on his face and with gratitude that we came. After taking some time to get a few things ready, when he had a second to spare, I asked Jeff to see if he wouldn’t mind answering a few questions for me. He said he would be more than happy to, but that he wouldn’t be able to sit down as he had too many things he had to worry about. I was going to take what I could get. While he was peeling potatoes, and I was packing up some of the leftover dessert from the night prior, I began asking Jeff questions about his life and how he got so involved with this organization.
I started by asking him a couple of questions just to get to know him a bit more. It turns out that Jeff grew up here in Salt Lake, but never really spent a whole lot of time around people who were homeless. In fact, as I continued to ask him questions about this, he happened to mentioned that while he was growing up, he would actually get nervous around homeless people. He said that “the very thought of being around them scared” him a little bit, which I found to be very intriguing. This man who spends on overage 32 hours a week serving at a homeless shelter food kitchen used to be nervous around the very people he currently helps.
“So Jeff, why the soup kitchen then? Why are you giving your time to help all of these people?” I questioned with a sincere desire to understand.
His response was something that I really took to heart. He replied, “I was homeless at one point. I understand the struggle that many of these people go through. I was fortunate enough to get out of the situation, but some aren’t as lucky. Knowing the things these people face, the least I can do is help make their lives a bit better.” What was even better, was that he responded to that questions exactly how he greeted my wife and I when we first met him — with gratitude and a smile on his face.
We finished up a few things we needed to get done, thanked Jeff for taking some time to answer some questions, and began walking toward the door. Jeff turned around and said, “Thank you both for coming to help me out today. I hope you know that the few hours you were here is going to make a difference for a lot of people.”
Jeff is the perfect example of how we as people can take the experiences we have had in our lives, both the good and the bad, and use them to be a light in the lives of others. How just by taking a few hours out of our busy schedules to focus on someone else, that that can make a big difference for many people. As of the end of 2018, there were 553,742 people who were considered homeless - and that number is only on the rise. Surely each of us have some time throughout the week to give up in make a difference in at least one of those people’s lives.
Serving there that day put into perspective just how important it is to not take the things we have in our life for granted. We are all extremely blessed no matter what phases of life we are in. Being able to show gratitude in all that we have and do, is going to make everything much more enjoyable, and we will be able to make a much greater impact on the people around us.
Taylor, Daeton. “Interview of Jeff. Catholic Community Services of UT”. 30 March 2019.
Parker Wood
Nicole Lowe: From Homeless Teen to Attorney
How can someone become a good example after a rough childhood?
As I was looking for a person to focus on I came across a lot of really good stories of people who have overcome challenges of making bad decisions and living on the streets and everything that comes along with that. One story in particular stood out to me and that is the story of Nicole Lowe. She is a local attorney who started off pretty rough in her early years. She lived a seemingly normal life as a child in Utah, then she got caught up in the wrong group of people after running away from home. She got involved in a drug ring and eventually ended up pregnant at 17.
Nicole spends her time now working for The Utah Department of Child and Family Services and has been for 3 years now. She became the Attorney General in the Child Protection Division for the State of Utah. She volunteers at Volunteers of America in the legal clinic with troubled teens who are experiencing homelessness. She sees a glimpse of herself in them. At 14 years old Nicole Lowe found herself living a carefree life as a runaway teen. She started to experiment with drugs and other harmful substances at the young age of 13 and 14 after she ran away from home and joined a gothic cult. She battled throughout many of her teen years with psychological demons and hysteria. While she was really caught up in this group of people she experienced many heartbreaking events that no one, especially a growing teenager, should go through. She was raped, spent many cold nights outside and often found herself hungry and wondering where to go. She eventually ran away to California and then on to Oregon where she got pregnant by a different man at age 17. After she gave birth to her first child she said, “I held him in my arms and he was so tiny. I couldn’t take him out there,” Lowe says. “I didn’t want that lifestyle for him. I didn’t want him to hurt like I had hurt and to be hungry like I had been hungry.” That moment changed her.
As she volunteers at the Volunteers of America in the chapter of youth here in Salt Lake she is often faced with the different challenges youth face. She often sees herself in the faces that come in and out of her office. Many youth who are homeless are so because they might have gotten into drugs, alcohol, and other issues that eventually led up to them being kicked out or running away, as Nicole did. Many youth often feel alone and that no one can really understand what they might be going through. Nicole provides a pillar of hope and that everything is going to work out for the best if they decide to work hard.
She is an inspiration to many and her Memoir titled, “Never Let Me Go” she talks about those different challenges that she faced as a homeless teen. In the article by Whitey Evans, Nicole says, “We all see potential in these kids. And we have to wait for that to grow. We have to wait for them to find their one reason and I believe they all have this one thing they have out there that will motivate them to become who they can be. Who they really want to be.” She really is a success story and something we as people can look towards. She has helped countless youth on their quest for a better life and will for many years to come.
Works CitedWhitney Evans, “From Homeless Runaway To Attorney and Advocate, Nicole Lowe Tells HerStory”. October 14, 2016. https://www.kuer.org/post/homeless-runaway-attorney-and-advocate-nicole-lowe-tells-her-story#stream/0Mckenzie Romero, “From teen runaway to advocate: Attorney shares her story as she serves homeless youth” KSL.com. September 18, 2016. https://www.ksl.com/article/41530609
Peter Do
Peter Do
Professor Packer
English 2010
March 26, 2019
Adversities in Life
Growing up Tiny has always fought through adversities that help him overcome the negatives things in life.
The first time I ever meant Tiny was when he was training me when I was transferring departments at Costco. His real name is Thomas Tanner but he likes to be call Tiny. When I first seen Tiny he look pretty intimidating. He’s a pretty big dude standing at 6’9 and 350 lbs. But after I got to work with him and actually talked to him, he was pretty nice dude and wasn’t so much intimidating at all. I wouldn’t have ever thought that Tiny was homeless until he told me he was going to California to drop off his homeless friend their. I eventually ask him if he was homeless before. He replied with “yes” and that's when I knew it would be perfect for my assignment.
We were outside sitting on the bench when this interviewed was going on. I simply ask him how it all started. He told me growing up with a dad as drill sergeant that impacted it. He was constantly moving place to place. Also he didn’t really like to be told what to do so when he turn 18 years old he told me he moved out of his house because he wanted to to follow his own sets of rules. He worked at Artic Circle where he can just have enough to start somewhere and grow off that. He said being homeless was tough because he was such a big guy. The Challenges he faces was finding place to sleep and constantly going to place to place to sleep somewhere. He said, “It was either sleeping in my car or finding a park with nice shade.” He told me once he finally saved enough money for a car he would sleep there. I ask him how he got out of homeless, he replied, “Work , work, and word hard everyday.” He told me finding jobs for him weren’t hard people always ask him if he wants to work for security because he was so big.
He finally has a good stable job where he works right now. Throughout our conversation he seems relax and a really cool dude. Till this day he told he still moves from house to house. He stated, “It’s easier to pay rent for one month somewhere and if I wanted to leave somewhere else he didn’t have to really worry about it.” He said he likes living like this and there isn’t many rule he would have to follow.
Tiny is a perfect example of someone who was homeless and was to figure a way out of homelessness. Also another example of someone who is willing to work hard and get him out of his struggles In Utah alone there was estimated 2,876 people experiencing homeless - and that number is constantly rising. There are ways to help prevent this from going to to help homeless shelter or simply spread the awareness.
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