My 17-year-old son needed some community service hours for school, so he signed up to serve lunch and dinner at the Catholic Action Center downtown this past weekend, and I went with him. The food there is for anyone who chooses to come to the facility; about 40 percent of the people are homeless, the rest low-income, and there seems to be varying degrees of mental illness across the group.

Most people were very courteous and grateful for the food. Others seemed accustomed to the center being their main source of meals and appeared nonchalant about it. A couple of them were hostile, such as the man who got a piece of fried chicken that was smaller than he expected and started cursing and threatening to "turn this f***ing place upside down" (he ultimately calmed down and ate his chicken).

What I think left the most significant impression on me were the three people we worked with at the center. All three are volunteers.

- Gary. About 64. He was a jump-master in the Army for 25 years, teaching soldiers how to parachute out of aircraft (his son is now a three-star general who commands Fort Bragg in South Carolina). Despite having major surgeries over the years and a lot of metal put into his body (including 2 bullets in Vietnam) the effects of which now make it difficult for him to move around, he works at the center cooking and preparing well over a dozen meals each week. While volunteers like us serve meals, he sits near the serving line and keeps order, e.g. making sure no one cuts in line, snags extra food, etc. He told us that when he was growing up on a farm about ten miles away, he would never have come into the run-down part of town that the center is in. But now, he said, he's more than happy to do it because "most of these people just took a wrong turn in life or had something unfortunate happen to them, and it could happen to anyone."

- Bev. About 60. She works full time at the University of Kentucky in a clerical role. Then she comes and spends up to 20 hours a week working alongside Gary -- cooking, preparing, cleaning. She's the person who got cursed at for giving the wrong piece of chicken, but she seems to take it all in stride.

- [didn't get his name]. About 45. He cleans pots and cooking utensils, all the food-preparation surfaces, and the tables where the food is served and consumed and the areas around them. He is a very large man and formerly worked as a bouncer in local clubs. Not sure what he does now for work, but he comes to the center multiple times each week to give this service.

I expected that working at the center would be a good experience for my son, and I went there mainly to support him. But I left there very appreciative of being reminded that the 'have-nots' in our community can benefit so much from the willingness of the the 'haves' to share time and abilities. It was a great experience, and I fully plan to do it again soon.