Lindsey Matthews and her six-year-old daughter Penelope, were looking to give back a little around Christmas time and had settled on serving dinner on Dec. 24 at the Salvation Army homeless shelter.
They went to meet the volunteer co-ordinator at the ministry’s building in downtown Maple Ridge, at the corner of the Haney Bypass.
It’s a quieter place since the city opened a temporary shelter across the highway to help clear the homeless camp from Cliff Avenue in the fall. But those staying at the Salvation Army Ridge Meadows Ministries still need have needs.
Upon their first visit to the Sally Ann, Lindsey and Penelope saw a need for them to help beyond just that one night.
They started helping out in the kitchen every Sunday in December, from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and have helped out more than 200 hours since.
“Everyone in our office had been raving about Penelope, Lindsey’s six-year-old daughter, for her work ethic, commitment and downright moxie in our kitchen every Sunday,” said Amelia Norrie, of the Salvation Army Ridge Meadows Ministries.
She added that Penelope, who’s in Grade 1 at Pitt Meadows elementary, commands the kitchen when she’s there, with assistance from her proud mother.
“It’s well known that when Penelope is in the kitchen, she will chop vegetables and pack lunches faster and more accurately than most of the adults in the kitchen, and she’s also been known to crack the whip on our food services team members, too.”
Penelope helps with packing lunches for the Salvation Army’s School Lunch Bag program, which in partnership with Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Community Services, provides bagged lunches to more than 175 local school children.
Penelope also serves meals to clients and organizes books in the dining hall. She plays with other children who come to use the Salvation Army services. She helps clean tables and the kitchen, and practises her spelling by writing out dinner menus on the white board.
Lindsey, a single mother who moved back to Maple Ridge five years ago after a decade in England, said that volunteering at the Salvation Army is a break from a regular weekend day, when she and Penelope usually run errands for the week ahead.
And it’s a good way to learn life skills.
“Initially, to me, it was a way to do something with Penelope,” Lindsey said.
It was also to teach her about giving back to those in need.
Upon their first visit, Lindsey sensed such gratitude among clients that she immediately knew that she and Penelope would return regularly.
She said Lindsey doesn’t mind the long hours.
“She doesn’t want to leave.”
When Penelope is at home, she thinks of ways to give to those at the shelter, whether it be clothes or toys she no longer needs or wants, or bringing milk and eggs for them.
“I think it’s creating a lot of community service ethic in her,” Lindsey said of her daughter.
Penelope said she’s learned about helping other people and always being nice to those at the shelter because some of them are having a bad day or they might be cold and she can help make them smile and give them food when they are hungry.
Sometimes she just gives them a hug.
One time, she brought shoes to someone who had none and who had wet feet.
She most enjoys serving meals and packing school lunches, baking cookies and muffins in the kitchen.
Lindsey said Penelope no longer wastes any of her school lunches, knowing now that she is fortunate to have what she does.
Lindsey hopes Penelope’s efforts inspire others to get involved, whether it’s once a week or once in a while.
Their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. “We could not be more thrilled,” Norrie said.