FOOD BANK

A few days before Christmas, we volunteered to work at a food bank in the older part of Sun City, which is about a 20 minute drive from here.  We didn't know what to expect and it turned out to be an enjoyable morning of work.

There were about 10 volunteers in our group and our task was to empty huge cardboard bins filled with canned and dry goods.  Some of the items were loose in the bins but many were in plastic grocery bags that had to be opened and then sorted.  It took a while to get organized and then we all started working efficiently.

We sorted the items by category and placed them into labelled stackable plastic bins.  The most popular canned items were soups, vegetables (lots of beans, corns, carrots and peas), meals (ravioli, chili), tomatoes and tomato sauces, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie filling.  The popular dry good were stove top stuffing, crackers, dry noodle soups and macaroni and cheese packages.

The filled plastic bins were stacked on pallets and moved out by a fork lift when they were full.  New cardboard bins were brought in by forklift as well and it seemed like a never ending supply.  We worked steadily for about 3 hours with one short coffee break about half way through our shift.  A few people left early but the rest of us just kept on going and we finally emptied the last bin.

There were other volunteers working in the kitchen area dealing with fresh donations such as meat, fruit, vegetables and baked goods.  That looked like less pleasant wok, especially if the produce wasn’t very fresh.  We had little mess in our area when we discovered a frozen turkey in one of the bins with the dry goods.  What was the donor thinking?

We didn't get to see how the food was sorted for the people who were picking it up—maybe we’ll learn that another time.