After a few shifts at the local soup kitchen, you begin to recognize the faces in the kitchen and behind the counter. For me, it was Charles "Chip" Prevost, a slim middle aged African-American man of smaller stature. For what he lacked in visage, he made up in his unrelenting and unashamed voice.

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Chip started volunteering at the age of 17.

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Before volunteering, Prevost had a happy childhood and a big family. "I come from a family of eight kids, and it was like the Brady Bunch, except the black Brady Bunch... I had a very good childhood. I was the richest kid in my neighborhood." He chuckles and smirks while recounting his upbringing. While leaving some parts out "for another time," Prevost says that his adult life has been dedicated to volunteering. Starting with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America which later became a first job.

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"Some of us look for the easy way out, and some of us look to hard work. I've always looked to hard work." -Chip 

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He admits that throughout his childhood, however, "I didn't understand the work ethic as a child growing up. I mean I did chores around the house, but I never understood the true meaning of work ethic until I became an adult." Throughout the interview, Prevost approaches his shift into adulthood as a long journey of maturity. A long time to realize the true value of work ethic. His hands no longer reflect his past lack of maturity, but rather the excess of.

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Prevost ended up at Someone Cares Soup Kitchen after working for Goodwill Industries and being introduced to their programs. "I worked as a job coach with developmentally disabled and 'Someone Cares' was our volunteer site, because some of my clients was were severely disabled, so we they couldn't work regular jobs, so we started doing volunteer work, doing the little roll ups of the silverware here on Friday, every Friday afternoon, and it became our staple" Prevost said.

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Similar to how I picked up a few faces, Prevost has come to know many of the regulars over decades of service."After 20 years, some of the guys still come here. Frank was here for the farmers market last weekend, and you can still come out in the parking lot [to hear him] yelling at traffic" Prevost said as he points out to Frank's infamous green truck which was something out of the Mad Max movies.

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"We definitely have some of the same guys that I've been seeing for years. A lot of them, quite a few of them, and most of them know me when I see them. They'll say 'Hey, Chip, how you doing'" Prevost said. Similar to Chip, I've earned myself a certain reputation at the Soup Kitchen; the older, Santa Claus-esque men in the corner  having awarded me the nickname of "Soup Boy" like I'm some sort of superhero. I guess the moniker "Soup Boy" stuck because it seems to echo through the yellow dining room whenever I come around in the morning.

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As a final bit of advice to teenagers specifically, Mr. Chip said

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"Never live your life with fear. There are a lot of people who have left this planet because they stuck by their dreams and their desires, and some met a sad ending, but you know what you can never say about them is that they didn't go out and try."

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You can still see Chip at the soup kitchen on the weekends during the breakfast shift. I encourage you to ask him for advice and while you may get the aftertaste of a conspiracy theory, he is one of the both hardest working and wisest people I've ever come to know.​

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