The Food Bank

Will is taking psychology this semester.  The teacher set a term project for the students to do 5 hours of community service.  Only two hours have to be physically at some location.  The rest can be accomplished through writing letters to senators, showing her a voter registration card (if the student is over 18) and other such things.  Will really hates writing stuff, however, and he's only 17, so he decided to do all 5 hours in physical service.  We signed up to volunteer at the Food Bank.

Yes, we.  It's not very fun to volunteer alone, and I wanted to volunteer, too.

I've never been to the Food Bank before.  I've donated canned goods often enough.  Every Scouting food drive, mail carrier food drive, school food drive, and any other food drive that comes our way, we usually pull some cans out of the pantry and send them on their way.  For the first time, on New Year's Eve, I saw where they all go.

It is a run down building near the end of the FrontRunner line.  Down by the train tracks, in other words.  In a dodgy part of Provo.  It's a warehouse in severe need of fumigating.  I spent most of my time stocking shelves in the "pantry"/store where people in need are sent through with helpers to insure they only take what they need.  They have to have visited a case worker, first, then they are sent through with a pallet cart and specific instructions to take X # of cans of soup, Y # of cans of vegetables, and Z # of cans of fruit, and so on.  The numbers were based on the number of people living in the family.  My job was to keep the shelves stocked so people could make their selections.

The canned foods had been sorted into bins in the back of the warehouse.  Many/most of the cans were dented in some way.  You know how you always leave the dented cans on the grocery store shelves when you are shopping?  Most of those cans end up at the food bank.  Some of them burst and spill their contents all over everything else in the bin.  Yuck.  That leads to the problem with mice.

The shelves I was stocking had mouse dropping on them!  Ugh!!!  I wanted to bleach wash them SO BADLY!  These poor people!  I desperately hope they sanitize the cans BEFORE opening them!  Who knows what kinds of viruses are being passed to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

Honestly, I'm not blaming the people who run the Food Bank.  They are understaffed and underfunded.  They are at the mercy of volunteers and there are never enough.  I want to go back so badly and bring a bunch a bleach wipes with me...

...but I dread going back because I had the worst allergic reaction I've had in years!  My eyes burned and were all swollen and puffy by the end of the day.  I also came home with several flea bites.

The people we helped were a mixed bunch.  Some were elderly and mentally struggling.  Some were new to the system and seemed almost apologetic.  There were several who didn't speak English.  Those who spoke Spanish could get a translator, but there were a couple of people who looked Asian, and no one could really help translate for them.  We didn't know if they spoke Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese.  Lots of pointing and holding up fingers to indicate numbers, mostly got them through the store.

I remember one young woman.  She was VERY pregnant.  When she got to the soup shelves, she noticed there were no Spaghetios.  She asked me if there were any in the back.  I told her 'I'm sorry' and that there had been no Spaghetios all day.  She frowned and pouted that she just would have to skip the soup shelves, then, since her kids wouldn't eat anything else in that section.

?!?

Oh. My. Gosh.  If I had to rely on the Food Bank to feed my children I would make sure to take EVERY BIT OF FOOD I was allowed and my kids would EAT IT!  You don't like chicken noodle soup, kidlets?  Tough cookies!  Eat and be glad you have food!  Oi.

Some of the things I put on the shelves disappeared instantly because they were so rare.  Like Miracle Whip, mustard, or chocolate syrup.  Other things are just staples and whole shelves had to be restocked several times over the course of the day, like green beans.  Peanut butter was another fast moving food item.

Will helped with stocking the dry goods.  Stores donate day old bread to the food bank, and that is sent on to families as quickly as possible.

The guy in charge told me that just before Christmas, an anonymous family donated a thousand stuffed stockings to the Food Bank to hand out to families with children.



I was so glad to have the opportunity to serve and I am shamed that it took my son's school assignment for me to do so.  We spent two hours, went to lunch, then spent three hours more.  The time went by really quickly and when I got home I was BUSHED! (and grossed out, and allergically puffy...)

I need to go again.


With bleach.