At the end of 2011, my wife Jen and I decided we would give of either our time or our money at least once per week in 2012. We decided to donate at least two hours of our time or at least $25 each week. As we began the new year, many of our friends were interested in our new commitment, and so I decided to write about the organizations we work with and the experiences we have. The stories told here are meant to shed some light on volunteering - the kind of work that is out there, and the clientele that is served, and to provide information about who is making a difference out there, and what you can do to help. Please come back often and share our experiences as we move through our giving year.

Also, we are always looking for new organizations to work with, groups that are doing good work and could use either our hands or our money. If you know of a volunteer opportunity or worthy cause, please leave it in a comment. Thanks for your help!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Week 5 - Part II - The Lakeview Pantry

Well, so it turns out that this week is a double header...We had been trying to get in to work at the Lakeview Pantry, a food distribution center, and they got back to us with an opening, so we jumped right in.  This organization is a small privately funded charity that works to serve a specific geographic location in the Lakeview neighbor hood.  They buy food from the Greater Chicago Food Depository, as well as picking up donations from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods locations in the area.  The Pantry then hands the food out to needy families three times per week.  The amount of food that a family can take home is significant - enough to feed that family for around two weeks.  The average food package is around 50# of food from frozen meat to canned goods, pasta and other dry goods, bread, dessert, and fruits and vegetables.  Families can get the full portion of food once per month, and can return every week to get fresh fruits, vegetables and bread products. For all that volume of food, the place itself is tiny, nestled in the basement of the gym at St. Alphonsus school.  It is crowded and loud, but the staff wrangles all of the volunteers and the patrons with startling efficiency.  In addition to food distribution, the Pantry makes an effort to provide for other areas of life as well.  There are some clothes and small household items available to the patrons, all free of charge.  These are the result of direct donations.  The Pantry also had a case worker on site to help patrons get information on other services that they might need.  Finally, the Pantry hosts some social events, like book clubs and other meet-ups to help meet the social needs of its clients.

Jen and I arrived for our shift and were immediately greeted with paperwork.  In addition to telling the staff a little about ourselves, the paperwork included a number of privacy and liability agreements.  It is clear that the goal is to make sure that the dignity of the clients is maintained at all times.  We were given a quick orientation and then began to work.  Jen was assigned to help greet patrons and to organize those who were just there for their weekly produce and bread allotment.  I was assigned to hand out products, in this case, cereal, cooking oil, oatmeal or grits, fruit juice, bread and desserts.  Every recipient has to register with the pantry workers, and once they do, they move down a counter where they are presented with the food the is available to them.  They are allowed to take or leave any of it.  The process is fairly slow, taking about 15 minutes for each person.  One person can collect food for a family of  six people or more, if needed, so the patrons have to think about how they are going to move all of that volume of food.  The pantry provides some grocery bags and boxes, but many of the patrons brought along their own bags, carts, etc.  Moving all of the food is what takes the most time, and we saw a number of the patrons, especially those collecting for large families, struggle to keep track of all of their food.  The pantry staff does what they can to make it easier for the patrons to handle all the food, but there limits to how much time they can afford to spend with any one person.

Jen's job was mostly about organizing the people who were in for the week to get bread and produce.  She was supposed to come around to all of them, check them in and then lead them to my station to get bread.  She found that this was a little overwhelming - all of the people crowded around her instead of waiting for her to come to them, but she managed herself very well and got everyone their turn.  After that, she helped get the food distributors things they needed, like refilling stocks of canned goods and double bagging plastic grocery bags for the patrons.

Overall, this was a deeply moving experience for both of us.  We were amazed at how upbeat and friendly the patrons of the food pantry were.  They were grateful and cooperative.  They understood that we could only give so much to each person, and they all thanked us and wished us a nice evening.  It sounds like that would not be so out of the ordinary - that you would expect people to thank you when you gave them food - but these people have so much more to worry about than whether I have a good night, and they still made a point to say it.  The best part of my night was working with a homeless man.  Most of the people we were helping were going home to a hungry family, but they were going home.  They had a way to refrigerate what we gave them and cook it when the time came.  This man had no such options, and word came down the line to help him find options that he did not have to cook or keep chilled.  He also had to calculate how much he could carry around with him.  Large boxes or bottles were too much.  That meant that I could give him less than half of what I had at my station.  In spite of that, he was friendly, talkative and exceedingly grateful.  He made it clear that he appreciated that we were trying to find what was just right for him, and that he didn't want to be a bother.  Can you imagine?! He has no where to go, no way to cook and is about to head out into the winter cold, but he does not want to bother me, who has a roof, a car, and a house full of food.  If the roles were reversed, I am quite sure I could not be as gracious as this man was. I really had to take a minute to collect myself after I helped him.  It absolutely slammed home why Jen and I are doing this, and it made want to volunteer every night of the week.

In all, we served 44 people over a three hour shift.  Those 44 people were collecting food for a total of 88 people when you add up all the family members they represented.  Compared to 1200 emergency food boxes at the Greater Chicago Food Depository or 19,000 meals at Feed My Starving Children, this number seems pretty anemic, but the experience of putting that food right into the hands of the people who need it was, without question, the most rewarding.  We signed up for another shift in a couple weeks, and will definitely make this a regular stop in our volunteering travels.


To give money or time, check out their website at:

Lakeview Pantry

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