Food bank and health

Tuesday morning I followed through on a decision I made to give a little back to the community. I've been thinking for quite a while about how to contribute my time to some volunteer organization, and I finally got the information and did it. I visited Second Harvest Food Bank on Monday to chat with them about the process of volunteering, when I could participate, etc.

It was ridiculously easy. There are volunteer shifts twice each day, including weekends. The morning shift is from 8am to 11am, and the afternoon shift is noon to 3pm. You show up, they put you to work, simple as can be.

I decided to take on the morning shift for my first visit of what I intend to be a weekly endeavor. When I arrived there were several other people there volunteering. They ranged from older retirees to younger folks my age. When I told them why I was there, the gentleman handling the process seemed a tiny bit surprised that I wasn't there to work for food or to satisfy a court ordered sentence.

We were put to work, assembly line fashion. First we assembled big bags of vegetables and produce. Potatoes, onions, carrots, apples, oranges and brocolli all went into a large fishnet style bag. We did that for almost two hours until we had finished the "job", filling I think it was around 160 bags.

Following that, we assembled a mixed bag of groceries. A box of oat cereal, a can of peas, 4 containers of applesauce, some bags of almonds, and a few granola bars. These were then grouped up into boxes of 3-4 bag and stacked on a pallet. I estimate that we created somewhere between 120 and 180 of these bags for a couple of different jobs, stacks of food destined for different organizations and non-profits that would distribute them further.

It was a happy environment, it seemed like there was a core of regular volunteers and everyone seemed to know most everyone else. I spoke with a few different people, one of whom told me he had been volunteering there for 8 years.

As for my time, it was well spent. I was busy, I was active, I was working hard, and I was making a difference to someone's life. I also got a serious workout, and my upper body was sore from the lifting and sorting and hauling.

I was also pleasantly surprised to note that the vast majority of the items we worked with were healthy food choices. It's good to know that we are providing food that will really nourish and sustain the hungry children of our area, and not just stuffing cakes and pastries at them.