at the food bank

This pic is looking out of the entrance to the RV park about 8am.  

This morning, I joined a group of volunteers from the KOA, & we helped the employees there pack almost 2,500 emergency food boxes in about 2 1/2 hours; they pack & distribute 34-40,000 such boxes each month. This food bank is a huge industrial-scale operation. 

During a break (the volunteers had all wandered off), I shot this pic of the line where we packed the boxes. When a box came to me, it had 6 assured cans & 2 boxes of mac & cheese in it; I added a can of Del Monte tomato sauce, before those further along added another can, a couple of other small items & a bag of freeze-dried stew. Lastly, a couple of folks used a machine to tape up the box & another moved it onto a pallet.  Behind those of us on the line were others moving in stock for us & moving out the trash & boxes. We packers never paused, just put two items in 2 boxes, then pushed them down the line. It was all an extremely well organized. Here's a packed box. 

  

This is another area where volunteers are sorting food that came in from a food drive. 

When we were leaving about 11:30, there were at least 50 cars in the parking lot of people getting food in the distribution area. This is a separate thing from the emergency boxes we were packing - lots of need here.

My only previous experience with a food back was making donations to the small one near me in Pittsburgh, so it was quite interesting to see this one. 

This afternoon, I worked with an RV tech for a couple of hours on my trailer & then made a big batch of chili.