Willing Hearts

Willing Hearts

Preparing food for those in need

An Afternoon at the Soup Kitchen

Ready, set, chop! AWA members help prepare chicken dishes I returned on March 25, 2021, to the Willing Hearts Soup Kitchen, one of the charity organizations supported by AWA. The name Soup Kitchen does not do justice to this well-organized center where delicious, nutritious, varied meals are prepared. These meals are intended for destitute elderly, migrant workers, disabled, and kids from low-income singleparent families. Singapore is one of the richest, most prosperous countries in the world; nonetheless, not all incomes in Singapore have managed to keep pace with its economic growth and price increases. Last year, just before the COVID outbreak, the Soup Kitchen was preparing 6,000 meals a day, seven days a week. This has increased to 9,500 meals a day. At 12 pm I arrive at the entrance of the Willing Hearts. AWA member and volunteer, Spring Sun,

receives us. She guides the participants from AWA in this monthly activity. The nicest thing about the Soup Kitchen: You get to know people of all ethnicities, backgrounds and religions. In the Soup Kitchen, there are two departments. One is expressly for vegetables, for where we chop and shred veggies while sitting at a large table. In the other, you must stand and do work varying from rinsing pans to cutting or marinating meat or tofu. There is also an outside area where boxes are carried to a van. You can be on call in any of these places. Today, we enter the kitchen for the standard food-safety ritual: washing hands, and putting on a hairnet, apron and plastic gloves. A few moments after she welcomes us, the kitchen supervisor whispers in my ear: "It is no coincidence that we meet. Buddha has put you on my path. Remember the following words: Maitri, Karuna, Mudita, Upeksha." She guides us to a large tray with chicken for cutting, a task that does not appeal at all to the vegetarian volunteers among us. Lucky for them, there are also many carrots to cut in the vegetable department. I would also prefer to cut carrots. On the other hand, someone has to prepare the chicken as well, and the kitchen’s heat requires us to hurry up. With a few other volunteers, I end up behind a sink which, like everything here, is of industrial proportions. To our left, two men are chopping chicken which we are assigned to rinse. Behind us, AWA volunteers are cutting poultry into smaller pieces to marinate. After two hours of cutting, we get tired and I suggest to my AWA partner that we take a short break. Another detail... Willing Hearts has a well-appointed canteen with food and drinks for the volunteers. Back to work after our break, we cut fish fillet into smaller portions. Although it's only three hours, it’s tiring work, but it's

very satisfying. As Meg and I walk to the MRT once our shift is done, I pronounce the words of my newly learned mantra: Maitri, Karuna, Mudita, Upeksha. Mait ri: loving kindness, Karuna: compassion, Mudita: joy and Upeksha: equanimity. Exactly what the Soup Kitchen is all about.

AWA arranges monthly volunteer shifts at Willing Hearts

Written bY Dafne Wesenaar

Meg Sine washing chicken pieces at Willing Hearts