Okay, so folks have been asking me about these “kairos meal tickets” I mentioned a while back. Wasn’t anything fancy, really, just something from that community volunteer day we had down at the park last fall. I figured I’d just walk you through how that whole thing went down for me.
Getting Started with the Tickets
So, I showed up early, ready to help set up tables. First thing they did was hand us this little packet. Inside, along with a cheap t-shirt and a schedule, were these things called “kairos meal tickets”. Never heard of ’em before. They looked kinda official, thick paper, with a serial number and a box for a timestamp.
The coordinator, nice lady but always seemed rushed, she tried to explain it. She said, “These are your kairos tickets. You get one for the lunch period. You gotta get it stamped at the info booth before you go to the food truck.” Sounded simple enough, right? Famous last words.
The Actual Process – Bit of a Runaround
Come lunchtime, my stomach’s rumbling. I’d been hauling chairs for hours. So, I head over to the info booth like she said. There’s a line, naturally. Waited about 10 minutes. Got to the front, handed over my ticket. The volunteer there, a young kid, looked at it, looked at a sheet, then pulled out this clunky timestamp machine. You know the type, like libraries used to use? Chunk-chunk. He stamped it.
Okay, step one done. Then I walked over to the food truck area. Different line. This one was longer. Waited another 15 minutes. Finally got to the front. The guy at the truck takes my freshly stamped ticket. He looks at the timestamp. Then he points to this sign I hadn’t even noticed, tucked away behind a stack of napkin dispensers. It said: “Tickets only valid within 30 minutes of timestamp.”
My stamp was from like 25 minutes ago because of the food line! The guy kinda shrugged. Said he had to follow the rules. Said the timestamp was the “kairos” part – the ‘right time’ to get food. Right time? Felt more like the ‘lucky time’ if you beat the queues.
Sorting It Out (Eventually)
I had to step out of line. Felt pretty grumpy, I tell you. Had to walk back to the info booth. Luckily, the line was shorter this time. Explained the situation. The kid looked confused, called the coordinator over. She sighed, scribbled something on my ticket with a pen, and said, “Just show him this.”
So, back I went to the food truck line (again). Waited (again). Showed the guy the ticket with the scribble. He squinted at it, shrugged again, and finally handed over a plate. Food was decent, standard barbecue stuff. But honestly, the whole ticket dance kinda soured it a bit.
Why Make it So Complicated?
And you know, it got me thinking. It felt like one of those things someone cooked up in an office to sound efficient, but it just made things harder for everyone on the ground. Stamping, timestamps, 30-minute windows… for a free meal at a volunteer event? Seemed like overkill. It reminded me of this temp job I had years ago, filing invoices. They had this ridiculous multi-colored sticker system you had to use, different colors for different days of the week, another sticker for the department, a third for approval status. Took longer to sticker the damn invoice than to actually process it. Drove me nuts. Made zero sense. This ticket thing felt just like that. Trying to be clever, ending up being a pain.
Anyway, that was my experience with the “kairos meal tickets”. Got the food in the end, but man, they could’ve just handed out simple tear-off tickets and saved everyone a lot of hassle. Sometimes simpler is just better, you know?
