volunteer day

Started off Friday morning at the Greater Boston Food Bank. Lots of waiting there. I was the only individual volunteer, but two groups were expected to help sort and box food. One of the groups was on time... the other arrived about an hour late. That was a little disappointing because it held everyone up and we got started about an hour and a half late.

Anyway, a very interesting experience. The food that GBFB receives mostly comes from supermarkets. Most of the food is damaged in some way, but usually not so damaged that it is inedible. I guess they only throw out about 3% of the food donated (at least the non perishable stuff). Some market sent beef and chicken - raw. Gross. I can only imagine how old that stuff was! We sorted a bunch of stuff from Trader Joe's. I was wishing I was on the GBFB program when I sorted a box FULL of dark chocolate bars! I truly hope that goes to good use and doesn't sit in the warm warehouse for too long!

Sorting food was at times a sticky experience, but I will go back again (maybe after this "heat wave" passes as the warehouse was not airconditioned). Volunteers save the GBFB thousands of dollars each year and help feed hundreds of people each day. The staff that works with the volunteers (mainly one guy named Kelly) is enthusiatic and comical. He makes everyone feel like they did a great job and didn't show any anger or disappointment when the one group showed up late. He must have had to deal with worse.

The second volunteer thing I did on Friday was serve the dinner meal at The Pine Street Inn. I actually ended up not really doing anything with the "service" of the food, rather, I handed out plasticware to the men who came in to eat. It was a little intimidating because compared to the rest of the volunteers, I was quite exposed - meaning, not behind the "protection" of the service counter. Although let me just say, there was really nothing I needed to be protected from. The meal service, and the shelter in general, seem to be a pretty tightly run ship. There were two employees who watched the door and allowed entry to the cafeteria and the kitchen staff to help out too. The men who were there seemed to be well aware of the boundaries of the environment. In any case, I decided to greet the men coming in for a meal as I would like to be greeted at any place I was going to eat - with a smile and a "good evening" or "hello." Most of the men responded with a "thank you" or even asked how I was doing. It made me happy to be helping out. Not everyone that entered the cafeteria was so lucid, some struggling to make eye contact or grab the plasticware. No matter what though, Pine Street Inn performs a great service to all the men and women who can count on a meal, medical or job assistance and a place to sleep.

All in all, I will definitely visit both these organizations again to help out because not only were the other volunteers enthusiatic and happy to be there, the staff at the organizations were friendly and happy to have the help. I tried to get a morning shift next week to volunteer in the kitchen at Community Servings, but they are all booked up and I have to call tomorrow to see if there is another time I might be able to go in to help.