Thursday, May 18, 2023

Food for Thought

I'm all about the Cleveland Food Bank

We donate to it regularly - several times per year. And with their tie in to Harvest for Hunger, I never go to the grocery store where I don't donate $10.  Why that is only a promotion 1-2 weeks per year is beyond me. 

My thing is:  no one should ever go hungry.  No one.   
Ditto of doing without shelter, but one problem at a time. 

With work, we are encouraged to do volunteer time - something I usually haven't done, and mostly just relegated to cash / cheque / credit card. But you know, work is correct, we should be giving back to the community, so when I suggested the management team do something as a team, they ok'd the Food Bank as the area with which we'd work. 

Yesterday, we spent a few hours up there, along with other volunteers they had, assembling meals for children who don't have a way to eat regularly once the school year is completed. My employer actually does have a lunch program during the summer where kids and their families can get a free lunch - I'm always disheartened how little is seems to be used.  But it costs money to get there, right?  And that is not always something every family has. 

We all had jobs - but 90% were walking around an area collecting one item per table for each bag and tying the bag. 5% was putting it six meals per box and sealing it.  The other 5% (me) was making the empty boxes. 

I'd take the unassembled box, fold in all the necessary flaps, tape what needed to be taped, stack them in fives then move them over to the packing area. 

Naturally, I went at it. OCD comes in handy here. And I thought about autistic kids who need a job, and doing something like this probably is good and soothes them. It did me.  I think I was doing about 15 boxes every 5 minutes. I think. Oddly, I didn't time it or count how many I made.....so..........progress. 

Have you ever seen Parks & Rec when Jerry / Garry / Larry just stuffs envelopes for 12 hours?  Yeah - that was me. I recognized it early and really leaned into it. 

Someone said, you're making too many boxes for what we have. And perhaps I was. But we wouldn't be the only crew doing this over the days, week or months. Someone, at sometime, is gonna need those boxes. 

We prepped about 10,000 meals yesterday. There were already a few dozen boxes made before I got there, but I made a bunch, and I hope it helps getting the good out the door. Everyone else got in a few miles of walking doing their thing. I stood in one place - and I was happy doing it. 




Song by: Squeeze

3 comments:

James Dwight Williamson said...

Such a good thing , so helpful. Like you said if lunch requires money for bus fare , that can be a total dealbreaker.

Travel said...

Bravo!

Old Lurker said...

Making boxes for one shift can be fun. Making boxes every shift for years can be a drag.