Logan-Papp-First-Visit-1-26-10
Today Benno and I visited the food bank of New York City located in West Harlem. We both worked at the pantry. I helped to stock the pantry with all different types of canned goods and fresh produce. I learned many different things from where things are kept to the volunteer work. One fact is that on average they have about 150 people come there everyday. The food bank of New York is only open on Monday through Friday. The way their stock works is that it is shipped from the warehouse to their pantry. Most of their items are put into large freezers and storage. The rest is stacked neatly on their shelves. The system works with points. Each item is a certain amount of points and each person is given a number of points. I learned that anyone could volunteer in the pantry. The kitchen is only open to volunteer for people fifteen and up. I helped stack things like cereal, chicken, farina, canned tuna tomato sauce, oranges, etc. Each item had to be stacked in a neat way so the items are easy to access. The boxes are then taken apart to recycle. I even helped put fresh produce like oranges on the shelf. There are three simple steps to do this. First you take a plastic bag and insert three oranges. Next there is a certain way to twist the bag before tying it to provide maximum room for storage. Lastly each bag is taken to their produce counter, which is then organized onto the shelf. They closed the pantry at 3:30 so we weren’t able to partake in handing the canned goods to people, but we still helped to get their stock on the shelves for the rest of the week. What shocked me were how many people they have to feed and hand out food every day. The volunteers are dedicated to the food bank and they make sure all the work gets done. We were able to ask our volunteer helper, Mike how long he worked at the pantry and why. He said he joined about two years ago and was dedicated to helping people eat everyday. I thought how great it was to do something for less fortunate people. Even though I only got to help in the pantry, I felt good that I was able to take part in this cause. That feeling made me want to come back and help pass out the food to people. It was also amazing how much food they had to move. Imagine a whole warehouse full of food that has to be brought to a pantry, stored, and reorganized on a daily basis. They must need a good amount of volunteers. The setup was like a small grocery store. There were several isles and refrigerators/produce sections. Here are some pictures:
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I am excited to volunteer again at this or another food pantry. This visit has inspired me to help even more with these causes. I am eager to return and I have learned a lot from that one visit.
-Logan