Miss Jean and the Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen

I had the pleasure yesterday of working at Loaves and Fishes, the only soup kitchen in East Biloxi. Loaves and Fishes serves a meal every day from 11:30am to 12:30pm and has resources for homeless and needy residents of Biloxi. When I arrived with two other volunteers at 10 o'clock I was approached by a one Miss Jean. Now Miss Jean was about 5 feet tall(if she was lucky) and about as big around as my thigh. Donned in her stylish bell-bottomed jeans, the 70 year old woman works at Loaves and Fishes daily as a volunteer. Upon meeting Miss Jean, it became clear that she ran the kitchen how she wanted to. Instructed first to assemble small to go bags which contained a sandwich, snack, banana and condiments, I laid out the paper bags and began. Not more than a minute passed before Miss Jean in her endearing way, accosted me and told me I was doing it all wrong. Miss Jean said, " You put the mustard in and then the mayonnaise. Haven't you ever been to McDonald's?! On the burgers, it goes mustard and then mayonnaise." I was not about to step on Miss Jean's well-justified rationale. Finishing up the lunch bags, I moved to the coveted lunch serving line. At the end of the line, "where I belonged" joked Miss Jean, I was charged with dishing out applesauce on the trays. When the lunch line began, things were rolling along fine until Miss Jean scooted over to my end of the line and said, " You serve applesauce away from you,child! Haven't you ever served applesauce before? " We laughed and a few minutes later when I had mastered the art, Miss Jean quipped " He can listen and learn." It was only after a few minutes of conversation that I learned that Miss Jean had been working at Loaves and Fishes for over 20 years...and never missed a day. The morning her husband died a few years ago, she was there. This type of dedication and perseverance was something I have seen in few people. Miss Jean was an inspiration to me. She was not well off herself as she made clear, but " always felt the need to help." A final touch in my parting words with Miss Jean shined light on a lesson we should all strive to understand this holiday and always. When I asked Miss Jean what she wanted for Christmas, she told me "Nothing but good health and life." She then asked me the same and when I told her that I wanted nothing, she said," Well sugar you can't want nothing. You have got to want to be and love to live. The second that want stops, the second you stop truly living."

Daniel "Slaughter" Killeen '09