Welcome back to my blog!  I say that as if you people left me and are just now coming back, when in reality I know that you didn’t really leave me.  You just realized that there weren’t any new blog posts since the beginning of December 2011 and there was no reason to come back until now.  One could blame me for the lack of blog posts.  I blame the Indians for giving me so many vacation days in a one year period and having such a busy schedule from January through November that I can’t actually use them until the last month of the year so they just pile up and I take them all at once!  That was quite a run-on sentence there, eh?

Anyway, I’m back now and that is all that matters, really. 

I’m here to share with you the Indians first Indians in the Community of 2012.  Once again we kick started our year of volunteering at the St. Augustine Hunger Center in Cleveland.  We had about 14 members of the Indians Front Office help prepare and serve lunch on January 11.  We did anything from peeling potatoes, to cutting up peppers and onions, to re-stocking their food pantry.  We then worked on the buffet line and served the customers their lunch.  The meal was a pretty square meal including Italian sausage in cooked vegetables, mashed potatoes, salad, green beans, beef soup, bread, and a nice little piece of cake for dessert. 

It was great to share some laughs with the customers of the Hunger Center and some of us even shared some tears–not with the people but more so with the onions as we cut them up (pause for laughter)!   

The Hunger Center opened it’s doors over 30 years ago and is part of the St. Augustine Church.  For those that are wondering, the Hunger Center does not only provide meals, but also addresses other needs of the poor and the homeless such as: food, clothing, emergency funding for rent and utilities, furniture, appliances as well as advocating for those poor seeking medical help.

They are always accepting of donations and, from our experience there, are in definite need of potato peelers, napkins, and plastic silverware to name a few things!

Thank you to all employees who volunteered as well as Dan Mendlik for taking the photos.