A<\/span>t the end of the year, I will turn 60, and I am doing a job that I did when I was in college: I am a food service worker.<\/p>\n When I first told people that I was taking a part-time job at my neighborhood grocery store in the deli, the response went one of two ways. First, some family and friends were aghast. Did we need more money? Should we set up a GoFundMe account? Did we wipe out all our savings by paying for private college and law school for our children?<\/p>\n Others would simply laugh and tell me I\u2019d be managing the store in no time. Both are not true. Although money and the respect of a job title are always nice, they aren\u2019t why I decided to take a clerk job.<\/p>\n I am choosing to be a foot soldier in the service world so that I can give back to my community.<\/p>\n For years, our stores have been there for us. For every late night beer run, early Thanksgiving cranberry panic, and last-minute potluck purchase, we have relied on our grocery stores and the community they bring.<\/p>\n Without our local businesses, where would we shop or dine? Where would we run into our neighbors and gather with our community? There are so many things that I do online now, ranging from shopping to entertainment and FaceTiming with my kids.<\/p>\n Whenever a stray dog walks across my lawn, I\u2019m more likely to post about it on NextDoor than I am to go outside for a look.<\/p>\n But working at my local grocery store connects me with my community. I see friends whom I haven\u2019t seen since my children were in school, and I get the chance to meet new members of the neighborhood, too.<\/p>\n As a service worker, I get a glimpse of my fellow citizens\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n Who is so organized that they make a weekly visit to the grocery store every Monday at exactly 9 a.m.? Who frantically walks in for diapers or breakfast cereal right before closing? Who chats with the workers and who is on their smartphone and headphones?<\/p>\n When members of my community come in, I can see a little of my life through them. Young children remind me of when I was younger, in this same community, and would buy whatever I could for a few bucks at the grocery store.<\/p>\n When I see a new mother carrying a baby, I remember my first years as a parent and the challenge of picking the proper baby food without forever ruining my newborn\u2019s chances as an Olympic athlete or astronaut.<\/p>\n When I see parents trying to impress their aloof teenagers, it reminds me of watching my own teens come into their own. I\u2019m lucky to see my community as both an insider and an outsider.<\/p>\n It\u2019s vital that we keep businesses like this alive.<\/p>\n As a reliable employee, I see it as my duty to support the next generation of managers to be successful in their jobs. I do not know all my fellow workers\u2019 backstories. Some will be in food service as a stepping stone to management. Others are passing through until their real career takes off. And several may just be happy to have a job.<\/p>\n Needless to say, I\u2019m inspired by my co-workers\u2019 tenacity in serving customers throughout the long hours of the day. Maybe one day, we\u2019ll all be replaced by robots, but I doubt those machines will generate the same sense of community.<\/p>\n Not all of us settle into a stereotypical retirement. Some of us are not people who can or want to travel all over the world. We have not all developed engrossing hobbies (bird-watching?). Not all are passionate about athletics, have a high-drama social circle, feel connected to a volunteer group, or can be satisfied by reading or streaming Netflix.<\/p>\n Is working close to minimum wage in food service a bad job? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n When working with a variety of individuals, it\u2019s often a soulful journey and can be as invigorating as traveling to a foreign country. At the end of my shift, I know I\u2019ve spent the day around young people, listened to their views (which I might not always agree on!), practiced retaining information, and am physically engaged. And sure, I\u2019ve earned some extra spending money, too. I am not only helping myself, but I am also literally serving my community.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not alone.<\/p>\n Take a look at many of the large (and small) retailers out there. You might be surprised to see how many people around retirement age are working in the kinds of jobs they might have held in high school or college, prior to launching their careers.<\/p>\n These might be jobs that young people don\u2019t want, but they\u2019re also jobs in which many older workers find value and meaning.<\/p>\n Hey there. Is there something I can help you with?<\/p>\n One woman’s perspective on jobs where many older workers find value and meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2019","category-fall-2019-columns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9212"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10338,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9212\/revisions\/10338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Lisa Frank is a deli clerk on Mercer Island, Washington. She can be reached at Lisa_Frank@comcast.net<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"