What if the served become the servers?

“I fed my community yesterday and for the first time I lead my team on my own and did everything with their help from start to finish. We fed almost 90 people! I was volunteered for the position and I took charge and made it happen. Thank you God for giving me the ability to serve.” ~ Jaimi

Every 3rd Sunday of the month a group of volunteers from the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Boulder provide an afternoon meal to those from the Boulder community who are experiencing homelessness. The Heartfelt Cafe at First Church and its volunteers have been providing meals for those experiencing homelessness for more than twenty-five years.

The meals are currently held and have been held in a large room in the basement of the church next to a large industrial sized kitchen, in need of repair.

Every time I’ve attended a third Sunday meal I have encountered a myriad of issues that those experiencing homelessness struggle with: addiction, mental illness, disabilities, trauma, poverty, not to mention failures of the system. I often walk away frustrated but on Sunday February 16th, 2025 I left the Heartfelt Cafe with a sense of happiness and joy in my heart.

A couple of weeks prior to the February meal one of our Illuminators approached our pastor Michael Mather and said, “What if instead of being fed we identify a group of folks experiencing homelessness that have culinary gifts and talents and ask them cook the meal and do the feeding?”

Michael loves these kind of questions!

So we embarked on a slow campaign of earning the permission and trust of the person who has organized and lead the meals for the past ten years. She gracefully agreed to allow a team of cooks experiencing homelessness to make and deliver the meal. Jaimi who has worked in kitchens but never lead a kitchen did a wonderful job in shepherding the team she formed and they delivered a wonderful meal.My joy and happiness wasn’t just because they put together a delicious meal. It was because the meal was empowering for all those involved and the individuals who prepared, cooked, and delivered the meal felt valued and seen. That energy is infectious and I could feel it reverberate in that basement on that beautiful Sunday afternoon.