Benno-1/26/10-Food Bank

Today Logan and I went to the Food Bank of New York’s food pantry.  This is like a soup kitchen at night because they make hot food and give it away for free, but it also serves as a pantry, which is like a grocery store where they give food away to those in need.  Our job was to restock all the shelves of food that people had taken today.  We restocked everything from fruits and vegetables, to canned goods, to whole frozen chickens. We learned that about 150 people come everyday.  We also learned that people get their food based on a point system: the larger the family you have, the more points you get, and each object costs a certain number of points. For example, a whole 3 pound chicken costs 6 points, and a can of vegetables costs 2 points.  This pantry receives its food from a large warehouse that is also owned by the food bank, but also distributes food to other soup kitchens and pantries.  Although we did not participate in handing out food at the pantry (because it closes at 3:30 on Tuesdays), we still helped out a lot and got a great feeling knowing that we helped out in the community.

Here are some pictures that I took at the pantry!

This is me at the food pantry.

This is a picture of Goya cans that I stacked.

These are 3-pound whole chickens that Logan stacked in the freezer.

This is me stacking orange juice.

This is one of the many storage rooms that contains boxes of canned goods.

This is me stacking canned pineapples.

Our last task: to put three fresh oranges in a bag and tie them up for distribution.