This week we were awash with opportunities for giving and volunteering. We found out about a number of places that we would like to give money (read about those next week...) and we got a chance to work with the Lakeview Pantry in a way that was different than our usual volunteer sessions.
Our volunteer week began with what has become our normal Thursday distribution session at the Pantry. It was a strange evening in that only 18 people came out for the full allotment of food and only 16 people for weekly bread and produce. Nobody at the Pantry could figure out why so few people came out, but I found out that the numbers were also unusually low for the Saturday distribution as well. Carrie, the coordinator at the Pantry, explained that when they have low numbers, they often don't find out why until the missing people come back. When they do, there are often a number of stories that add up to a slow week for the Pantry rather than one reason that kept everyone away.
Talking about the numbers of people got us talking about surveys and collecting data from the patron of the Pantry about themselves and how they use the Pantry. Carrie said that they do ask a few questions of new patrons and do a large survey of Pantry users every two years or so. While these surveys do give valuable data about usage trends, the Pantry staff has to be careful about making the patrons feel like they will have to answer a lot of questions before they are given their food. One method that has proved very useful in getting feedback is to do it at times other than the distribution sessions. This past week, Carrie hosted their first feedback session at the West location. She tells me that turnout for the session was quite low, which was expected, but that the feedback received was excellent. She wound up talking with the patrons for an extra hour and turned the notes into two full pages of "minutes". When we talked about it, she was in the process of turning those minutes into action items - things to do to directly improve the Pantry experience for its users. She was very excited about how effective the session proved to be.
I had a chance to talk to Carrie about all of this on Saturday, when Jen and I took part in a food drive for the Pantry at the Jewel store at Addison and Southport. Usually, the Pantry does food drives when a church or other large group asks to help out. The distribution sessions only require about 10 volunteers, so when a group wants to bring 25 or 30 people, the Pantry suggests a food drive at a local store, many of whom they have relationships with. In this case, the Pantry was approached by the store managers of three local Jewel stores and asked the Pantry to provide the volunteers for food drives this week and last week. Last weeks drive was at two stores and yielded around 5,000 pounds of food as well as some cash donations. I don't have the numbers for the drive Jen and I helped with this weekend, but everyone said it was way off the place of the previous weekend. To give a little perspective, the Pantry hands out about 30,000 pounds of food per month, 360,000 pounds per year. They distribute three times per week, which works out to about 2,500 pounds per session, so the food drives last week collected enough for two distribution sessions.
Jen and I took the early shift on Saturday, working from 8 to 10 am. It was a damp, foggy morning, and not many people were out, but we still had a good time. The way it works is that the Pantry provides collection barrels and small lists of the non-perishable stuff they always need. The volunteers stop people as they come in to the store to let them know what we are up to, and then ask the shopper to pick up items from the lists. There is also an opportunity, of course, to give cash. I was surprised at the number of people who were open to giving when the opportunity presented itself. It was clear that people were willing to make small donations just because we were there. A few came back with whole bags of items. There were also people who would not even listen to what we had to say and were quite rude, but I can understand a little bit - you get asked for money a lot in this city. We preferred to focus on the positives and we had a great time. We also met some regular volunteers from the Pantry's East location, which was fun.
I had also told Carrie that I would help her collect food in the Pantry's van later in the day. Jen came along too, and it was on those collection runs and the time in between, which we spent doing odd jobs around the Pantry, that Carrie and I got a chance to talk about the things noted above. I got a chance to see how hard the Pantry staff works, because I got to see how everything, all 360,000 pounds of food each year, come into the Pantry. It involves loading stuff on to small carts, which get pulled over to the exterior door (there is no dock or even a real driveway). From there, the carts get off loaded because there is a large stair going down to the Pantry level. Workers have to hand cases of food off the side of the stair and load them on to other carts, which then get pulled into the Pantry. I did this with Carrie, who is tough as nails a result of doing this all the time. We only did one serious load which included about 400 pounds of food and the collection barrels, but it was still a workout. The other day they got a delivery that was over 3000 pounds! My respect for Carrie, which was already pretty high, shot way up when I realized how impossibly hard she works every day.
There was one other interesting thing that happened while were we at the Pantry between collections. A mother called in because she had just wrapped up a birthday party for her young son, who had turned 7 years old. As part of the birthday party, they has collected food items to give to the Pantry, which I think is a cool idea. How great is it to get kids in the habit of giving when they are young? In any case, the mother wanted to bring the kids (there was an older brother as well) over to the Pantry to drop off the food. Since we were going to be there Carrie told them to come on over. When they got there, Carrie took a picture with the boys and then had them shelve all the food they brought. They were thrilled at helping out, and it was clear that the whole experience was going to stay with those boys quite a while. It made me want to pin a medal on the mother.
All in all, it was a great couple days at the Pantry, and a very cool look into some of the inner workings, the backstage perspectives. Sadly, Jen and I won't be able to volunteer at the Pantry in the coming weeks because of our busy schedules and other volunteer opportunities, but we will surely come back as soon as were can.
For more information on the Lakeview Pantry, consult posts from previous weeks or go to:
Lakeview Pantry
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