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!

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Week 29 - Lakeview Pantry

It has been 10 weeks since we last worked with our friends at Lakeview Pantry, and so it was great to get back with Carrie and some of the other volunteers we know.  Jen and I were both excited to be back, and ready to serve lots and lots of people.  It was a little disappointing, then, when the doors opened and a little less than half of a capacity crowd showed up.  Of course, we still enjoyed serving those people but it did lead to a little discussion about where everyone was.

It was a very hot day, and that seemed to be the main culprit.  It seems that when it is very hot, people think about the long trek home loaded down with groceries and then decide to stay home.  As a result, it sounds as though the pantry has had kind of a roller coaster ride when it comes to the volume of patrons they see.  Since we have had long stretches of very hot weather, people have stayed away, but then come in droves when the temperature dips back into the tolerable range.  The numbers of people coming to the pantry overall have declined as well, but so far there does not seem to be a clear reason for that.  Some neighboring pantries, such as Common Pantry are doing more business this year, which may suggest some amount of migration among the people who use the pantries, or it may be a coincidence.  It is difficult for the pantry staff to address these kinds of questions, because the people they would like to ask about them are the ones who are not showing up.

The slow night did allow for some catching up with Carrie about the pantry.  In between serving people, I was able to spend some time designing a cart that Carrie had asked me about weeks ago.  When the patrons come, they are given a great mass of food, especially if they are collecting for a large family.  In order to get all that food home, many of them bring collapsible grocery carts.  Because the pantry is not terribly large, those carts can cause quite a traffic jam when there is a large or even medium sized crowd for distribution.  Carrie had the idea to collect people's carts from them as they came in, store them on a caddy of sorts and then hand them back as they go to collect their food.  In theory, this should do a nice job of reducing the congestion during distribution.  The trick is to come up with a rolling cart that is not too big that can also hold a good number of grocery carts.  I believe I have come up with a good idea (sketched on the corner of a cardboard box).  Now I just need to find time to build it.

Carrie also reminded us about the volunteer appreciation party that the pantry is throwing this week at Lincoln Hall, a local music venue and showed us the latest pictures of her daughter, who is beyond cute.  In spite of the small crowd, we had a great night!

For more background on Lakeview Pantry, please see previous posts.

For more information on the pantry, go to Lakeview Pantry.
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