At this point in my journey, I have volunteered at 3 different food pantries/distribution centers. I think being a helper is an important part of being a human. There is always someone we can be helping. For me, doing so anonymously helps me keep my focus on the people I'm helping and not anything I get in return. Although I have volunteered on this trip in other ways (Pierce County Fair say "what!"), finding the local food bank and signing up to volunteer is often easier to do with my own limited availability and time frame (some other volunteer opportunities require trainings and/or clearances).
I generally search for food banks located near where I am staying. Sometimes, it's been easy and sometimes it hasn't. Some lists and google businesses are outdated. The question is always how far is too far to travel for volunteering. Then it's a matter of trying to find one that fits into my schedule, which is also a challenge. Many places out here only have a food bank open once a week, or maybe even less. The last step is signing up. This is of course a whole process for many places (creating a profile in their online system complete with mini essays of why I am interested in volunteering or an "about me" section, etc.) which is just red tape to navigate before actually being able to help.
Today, I had my fourth experience, this time in Moorcroft, WY. The experience from start to finish has been very different from all the other volunteering experiences thus far. About a week ago, I found a church 30 minutes west of Sundance that hosts a food bank. When I called to find out if I could help, the pastor of the church, Monte, picked up. He immediately told me the hours they run the food bank and welcomed me to come and help. He also invited me to their church picnic they were having the day I was coming from Broadus to Sundance - so I had decided I like picnics and stopped by.
When I showed up this morning to what looked like an retired school turned town center, we started setting up for their usual process. Then the food arrived from the WY food distribution center, except it wasn't pre-sorted like it usually is. This meant pallets of produce, cans and dry goods arrived not pre-boxed for easier distribution. Some pallets contained bulk amounts of items, some pallets contained multiple items in bulk. We spent the first three hours not just setting up for patrons to come, but also sorting, unboxing items from their shipping boxes and boxing them for handing out via the assembly line we had made. It was organized chaos.
The focus was on creating the boxes for the patrons as fast as we could. This meant in the process, opening and discarding the shipping boxing so we could have easier access to each product. I probably single-handedly opened over 100 boxes and quickly threw them to the side like everyone else on the assembly line. As you can imagine, the pile of opened, not yet broken down, boxes became quite monstrous. As the recipients started lining up with their cars (early so they could get the best boxes), we worked to create the distribution boxes as fast as possible. Volunteers just kept coming - originally there were maybe 10 of us, but by the end - I would have guessed closer to 30. Every pair of hands was needed.
By the start of the actual distribution, we had almost completely sorted the food on the pallets. Some of the group left to brave the heat and distribute the now organized boxes, others (such as myself) began to tackle the intimidating mess of boxes. It took another few hours to break them all down and clean out the old school cafeteria.
For a town of less than 1,000 people - I was so impressed by the number of people that came to help and on a weekday morning at that. There were all shapes and sizes there (ranging maybe from 7 to 80). I have no idea if someone was calling people or if that is the normal volunteer attendance for their food distribution days, but it was amazing what we pulled off. I felt blessed that I was able to help them in this challenge and even more that I could see how a small town was able to overcome the obstacles presented to them today.
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