Dignity Given

Clean school cafeteria with many empty seats and tables.

I was doing service work at a men’s homeless shelter, and this time they assigned me to the kitchen, where my job was to sort desserts donated by bakeries and then arrange them neatly and attractively on trays to serve at mealtimes.

At first I balked at this—me, a compulsive overeater who used to binge on these foods, handling baked sweets for an hour?! Then I calmed down, prayed to HP for guidance, and reminded myself that this stuff was not mine and I had a choice: I could pick up the food again or just do the service work that I had been assigned.

“Okay,” I thought, “I can do this.” I got a hairnet and gloves and went to work slicing and arranging. As each tray was done, the kitchen supervisor brought in more.

At one point, he carried in a large bag of pastries that were broken, smashed, and globbed together at the bottom. His directions to me were, “Only use those that you would eat yourself.”

I was in shock. When I had been in the depths of my disease, there was nothing I would not eat, even globby, gross, mashed-up stuff at the bottom of the bag!

Then it hit me. The homeless shelter was attempting to treat these men with dignity by serving them attractive meals. What my disease did to me was strip me of all dignity when it came to food and eating behaviors. By working the Steps, I gain my dignity back and can choose to no longer eat the way I used to. OA gives me dignity of choice in how and what I will eat.

— Ann S., Covington, Louisiana USA