Education

ROSARY HIGH’S CLUB, JOSEPH’S KITCHEN, SERVES THE POOR

By Alison Mickalak, OC Catholic Intern     6/9/2015

Joseph’s Kitchen is a student club at Rosary High School that was created to work with students from its brother school, Servite High School, to provide meals for the homeless. “Her Servants Kitchen” makes a dinner in the Servite kitchens, while Rosary students bake a dessert in theirs. The two schools then travel to La Palma Park each Thursday to serve the meals.

Rosary’s club is made up of eight core members who lead the rest of the student volunteers in the baking of that day’s treat. Any Rosary student who wishes to help only has to show up at the kitchen on Wednesday after school. The girls work year round and bake anything from an old-fashioned chocolate chip cookie, to festive fall treats such as pumpkin bread. Not only do the girls bake, but they collect all the recyclables out of the trash cans after school.

The girls are paired up and sent around to over 30 trash cans around campus to dig through the trash for cans and bottles. As they collect they are silent as they reflect and put themselves in the shoes of the homeless who do this every day. All the money earned from the gathering the recyclables goes toward helping those in need.

Core member,Chiara Desantis explains, “Being a part of Joseph’s Kitchen has truly opened my eyes to what goes on in our community. At Rosary, we are lucky enough to have food and a home to go to after school. So many people around us don’t and I have become much more grateful for what I have.”

Rosary students are very lucky to have so much opportunity, and so it is heartwarming to see that they thoroughly enjoy giving back. When volunteers were asked why they decided to help, they said that when they are handing out meals it is easy to see the difference they are making and notice that that difference is worthwhile.