In the Rain, Gratitude was Queen

Nancy Toba-Laba, a long time member of the South Bay campus and an ardent volunteer at the food pantry, sends this report on distributing food for 400 households in the rain:
 
"Rainy and cold Saturday in the South Bay Food Pantry. There we were, all the volunteers, moving from one side to another, laughing and shouting to complete our goals. We looked like children playing in the rain. While our hands felt coldly frozen, I must say that never a complaint was heard.  It was a curious Saturday, quite different not only because it rained but also because of the attitude of all the people who were there, as if we were witnesses of an unparalleled event.  The volunteers were engrossed in their work with their happy faces, and meanwhile the clients waited in line chatting animatedly. They observed with great attention the tasks that the volunteers carried out and for the first time I observed empathy, gratitude and perhaps some other feeling that moved and filled my heart with satisfaction. 
 
I could not stop observing everything that happened that day, because it was truly a day like no other.  From time to time I would ask the volunteers who pack the fruits and vegetables, Hello, how are you? They answered in chorus "blessed" and my face lit up with gratitude at the strength of their response.  This Saturday is great. I told myself inside. It had been a long time since I had lived the satisfaction of feeling, listening and witnessing a completely unifying day, incomparable, where we were all able to put ourselves in each other's shoes and our clients had so many beautiful, unique and blessed words for the volunteers and our South Bay Food Pantry. Gratitude was the queen this Saturday because despite the rain and the cold we were there working with love, energy and diligence so that our dear clients could take their food home just like every Saturday.