“Hola, firma y fecha de nacimiento.” This week I worked the check-in at the Food Truck on 179th Street. And I’m not going to lie, when I arrived on site I was very tired and painfully cold in the shade of the church. Yet when the truck finally pulled up to the corner, filled with food, an elated feeling filled my body. Only about a month into my study of Spanish, there was only few words we could exchange, but the warmth I exchanged with the customers acted as a substitute. Throughout the two or so hours I spent checking in families and individuals, I was shocked by the contentment I felt. Maybe it was a product of the experiences I had from serving during pre-orientation freshman year or maybe it was the conversations we’ve had in class surrounding the idea of equality and dignity, but this experience felt different. When I was younger I used to volunteer with my family and members of my church at my local soup kitchen. As a little kid, my participation in this felt like some heroic act. I would leave the soup kitchen feeling like some sort of humanitarian. It wasn’t that I had no exposure to socioeconomic diversity. In fact, I grew up working in my father’s laundromats in an array of neighborhood filled with all sorts of customers. My hometown wasn’t so posh either, I saw homeless people regularly and was aware of the struggles of many of my classmates. Fast forward seven or so years, and I found myself at this table checking people in to supplement their food insecurity. Unlike my childhood experiences, I felt no convoluted sense of superiority over these people. Everyone I encountered was friendly, resourceful, and purposeful. We all shared the same objective and I felt content. I enjoyed listening to the many hispanic people that surrounded me, interpreting the variety of names that came my way, and the sense of community I felt from the 140+ people I met. In a common culture of superiority complexes, the dignity and equality of this environment refreshed me. The fatigue and coldness I began the morning with vanished.
