About Joshua’s Bar Mitzvah Project

When discussing types of community service projects to work on, Joshua knew right away what he wanted to do.  He wanted to cook for the working homeless.  He wanted to plan the meals and cook the meals himself. 

He volunteered at the Mt. View House Shelter at the beginning of the year.  Joshua planned out the meal  and prepared about 20 quarts of beef stew and 3 trays of Ghiradelli chocolate chip brownies from his own  monies - enough to feed 30 people, mostly women with young
children.  The meal was rounded out with bread and salad from the Mt. View Shelter’s stock of supplies.

He next volunteered for Loaves and Fishes, having to do so on school holidays as they operate from 8 am until 2 pm.  Carmen Schiavone is the volunteer coordinator and head chef of the program.  She worked with Joshua to orient him to the kitchen and allowed him the unique opportunity to see how the foods arrived, to plan the menu and set aside the supplies needed to create the meal.  She reviewed his menu to make sure that it provided nutritional content. 
Once approved, Joshua was able to cook and prepare the menu from available supplies.  When he was finished, Joshua created a vegetable and egg fritatata, bread and butter, salad, and a pear and berry dessert for about 400 people.  He had some help as there were other volunteers that arrived to help with the food preparation, but ultimately, Joshua was responsible for the majority of the meal. 
 
It was an amazing experience to see how a meal was created from the sum of its parts - not just from the food donations, but the sum of community volunteers.  It was also wonderful how the community welcomed the help from a young man hoping to help make a difference.  Thank you to Mt. View House and Carmen from Loaves and Fishes for all that you do - day in and day out.  Thank you also for giving Joshua these very special and memorable opportunities to make a difference.