News

By Jodee Taylor

 

I originally started volunteering because I was paid! I was helping serve breakfast at Central United Methodist Church when the new Safe Harbor shelter opened – and needed a kitchen manager. It was a paid position, two hours a day, helping each day’s volunteers learn how to run the dishwasher, make coffee, and not burn up the kitchen. I knew a little about kitchens, having grown up in Traverse City and worked in virtually every restaurant in town (shout-out to the downtown J&S, which just gave us a bunch of kitchen stuff when they closed; I worked there in the early 80s).

 

A new recipe for kitchen management

After a couple years in the new shelter, everyone knew how the kitchen worked, so we switched to a rotating schedule of volunteer kitchen managers, one of whom comes in every day. These kitchen elves make sure the paper towels and napkins are stocked, the kitchen is cleaned and sanitized, and the refrigerator is ready for the next group of volunteers to load it up with food.

 

I’ve started nabbing all the weekend shifts for this role because, in the winter, the guests are able to stay at Safe Harbor all day if they want. Volunteers from Central make a hot breakfast, but there are no promises for lunch.

 

Guess what? We have lunch nearly every Saturday and Sunday throughout the winter! We’ve started calling it the “Safe Harbor Miracle,” because there is always food to be served. We get sandwiches and salads (and recently tangerine chicken and rice) from Traverse City Area Public Schools, bag lunches from St. Francis, even dozens of pizzas donated by random friends.

 

We still encourage guests to go to the weekend community meals, because they are delicious and people work really hard to serve them. A lot of guests eat at both Safe Harbor and at a community meal.

 

There’s also a there-but-for-the-grace aspect to Why I Volunteer. I’m a recovering alcoholic. If I hadn’t stopped drinking, I’d probably be dead, but if I wasn’t dead, I’d probably be on the other side of the buffet line.

 

Favorite task: Using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser on the white cupboards. It really is like magic! Least favorite task: Untangling apron strings.

 

December 2025