The rule on volunteering with the group I volunteer with is that when you sign up for a shift, you’re responsible to clear all the food the place is donating that day. You might recall I pick up overstock food from stores that would otherwise throw it away. We bring it to places that distribute it to hungry and poor people. I used to deliver it to an outdoor community fridge in Chelsea, but you know how people are with free stuff. They argue over it, drop it on the ground and leave it, and otherwise behave in ways that prompt neighbors to complain. After a while, the church hosting the outdoor fridge had to stop hosting it.
Still a community of people who used to pick up from the fridge meet at scheduled times. I deliver it directly to them.
Today when I arrived at the store, it looked like a full load. As I was near to finishing filling my cart, he pointed to a whole other bunch of food and said it was for donations too. Here’s the first load. It’s not glamorous, just what delivers from where it would be thrown into a landfill to the hands and mouths of people who for whatever reason take their time to get it from me.
Actually, today there were gasps and wows at the selection. I don’t know what determines what gets overstocked. I’d guess the store chain figures out algorithms to minimize loss, but what slips through slips through. In any case, the recipients loved today’s.
When would I pick up the second load?
I was scheduled to meet the recipients a bit after 4pm. I then had to pick up my CSA produce and return home for a coaching call at 5pm. I was going to walk while I talked and coached to an author event I had registered for weeks before at 6pm – 8pm. My client knew I volunteered before our calls and appreciated that sometimes I walked while we talked. The author event was at a place with a dress code that men had to wear a jacket, so I had to change out of sweaty delivery clothes after returning from volunteering and picking up CSA produce and walk slow enough not to get too sweaty for the event.
I checked how late I could deliver at Bowery Mission. They closed at 8pm. Darn. My only option was to leave the author event before 7pm, rush home, change back into clothes I could sweat in, rush to the store, and rush to the delivery place before they closed at 8. They have a lot of volunteers so probably don’t like being kept late.
Everything worked out. Here’s the second load.
I arrived at 7:43pm, meaning I walked all the legs fast. I dropped it off in the kitchen and was out at 8:02pm. I probably got home about 8:45pm. At last I could do my evening burpee-based calisthenics, shower, prepare dinner, eat, get out the computer, and write this post. It’s past 10:30pm now and it’s been a long day.
This volunteering takes more discipline and responsibility than I would have suspected when I joined the group. We can’t have that many more members since people don’t like being fifth wheels so we don’t have alternates for when there’s more than one load and we have to do these double shifts at unpredictable times.
The physical labor isn’t hard, but would be more comfortable if it weren’t so hot and humid. On the other hand, the work is its own reward.