Weeks 40, 41 and 42 - Circling back to those we know

Well, as you might guess from the title of the post, our crazy busy fall season has not abated and I have not been keeping up on posting.  As always though, we have not missed a week.  In the last three weeks, we had some great times visiting the organizations we have become very fond of.

Longest ago, in week 40, we returned to the House of Mary and Joseph for another night of feeding the patrons before they retired for the night.  Or so we thought...  As it turned out, there was a food truck parked outside the shelter from a local church group.  The food truck fed almost everyone that had been waiting to get into the shelter, so almost no wanted the food we had to offer.  We did not know about the truck outside, so it was a strange night for us.  Usually, the patrons can't get enough, even though the House serves almost the same thing every night.  But on this night, everyone kept turning down the sandwiches and eating only one cup of soup, or none!  We were mystified for most of the night, until one of the program residents (the ones who live at the shelter while they work on getting housing, work, etc.) told us about the food truck.  Then it all made sense, except for the logic of feeding people where there already was food.  I am sure the patrons of the House enjoyed the change of pace, but I have to believe that the food truck could have gone somewhere that people had nothing to eat.  In any case, everyone was in a good mood.  It was a nice fall night, not too cold and there was variety - something that the people who depend on kitchens and shelters almost never get.

Next up was Common Pantry, for Wednesday night food distribution.  Unfortunately, I wound up having to work late and had to cancel at the last minute, something I try very hard not to do.  Jen went and worked without me, though, and had a good time.  It is always busy there on Wednesday nights, and this one was no different.  They had a large number of what they call "courtesy" cases.  These are people who live outside of the service area for the Pantry, or who have already gotten their allotment of food for the month.  The pantry workers will not run someone away outright, so these people are given food, although less than a regular patron, and sent on their way.  The problem is that some of the patrons try to come almost every week to get a courtesy package.  These people have to be dealt with by Scott, the Pantry manager.  He tries to be as generous as possible, but he has found, as have so many others who run pantries and kitchens and the like, that he must stick hard and fast to his rules because any little slip brings in a flood of people looking to take advantage.  Sadly, this makes it harder for honest people to get the help they need.  In spite of all of that, Jen still had a great time.

Since I could not make it to the Pantry, I decided to make another loan with Kiva.org.  This is the organization that acts as a clearing house for micro-loans from all over the world.  The idea behind micro-loans is that many people in impoverished countries could benefit a great deal by getting very small loans to start or improve a business.  These loans are so small that normal lending agencies overlook them and would never extend credit to the people in this situation anyway.  Kiva makes these small scale loans to people all over the world through a network of lending partners and the "backfills" them with money from donors all over the world.  The loans are repaid in very small increments over about a year, so if you loan $25 (the base suggested loan amount) as part of a $600 loan, for example, you would most likely see that money back in a year or so.  Ideally, you would then use it to make another loan.  The borrower gets the cash infusion they need and no single person has a major amount of risk.  Most of the loans are repaid, but if there is a problem, no one is out very much money.

Since I think this is a pretty good system, I went looking for a loan to make.  I started by narrowing my search down to women borrowers, because the plight of women in impoverished nations is far worse that the plight of men.  I looked for loans in the arts, but there were none available, so I looked for loans that were almost complete.  I like to give the last chunk of money on a loan. Even though the loan has already been dispersed, it still feels like an accomplishment.  From the loans that were nearly complete, I found Asina, a woman in Kenya.  She has used Kiva loans in the past to start a boda boda business - a motorcycle transportation business.  She used Kiva loans to buy her first and second motorcycles and is now looking to buy a third.  her business is growing and she is considering opening a retail store as well.  This is Asina:

It seemed like an interesting story to me, and so I was able to make the last donation to her loan.  I kind of like the idea of this woman kicking around Africa on a motorcycle.  I hope she continues to do well and improve her life.

Last week was perhaps the most fun we have had in a long time volunteering.  Jen and I were scheduled to work at Feed My Starving Children to pack food bags when we got a call from my sister Virginia.  She happened to be coming to Schaumberg, where we pack the bags, on business, on the very night we were going to go work.  We asked if she would come with us, and she agreed.  We met for dinner and then went to work.  Virginia had never been to FMSC before, but had heard about them, and another organization like them.  As it turned out, we had a blast.  Usually, there are a lot of kids at the packing sessions because they are so popular with school and church groups.  This time, there was a big contingent of high school or college age kids, and no really young kids at all.  I have always said that we could really cruise if we got a group like this, and cruise we did.  Virginia took to it right away, and we hooked up with a few people we did not know to make a table with all ten worker spots filled.  Theoretically, in during one session, we should pack a box for every worker, so we should have packed ten boxes.  We packed sixteen.  It was the most furious work we have ever done there, and so much fun.  We just blazed though it.  It was a big rush for everyone on the table, even though we were all exhausted at the end.  Overall, we had 54 workers and packed 64 boxes, so the whole room was not moving quite as fast as we were, but it doesn't matter.  We had a ton of fun, and my sister will definitely be back.  This is her with Jen and I after the session.

These three weeks have proven to be just as fun and interesting as all the others.  We learned new things, made new friends, and helped out some people who needed it.  Next week we head back to the Lakeview Pantry, where we will give out food and, hopefully, fix a busted door latch in their cargo van.  I will tell you all about that next week!

For more information about the Franciscan House of Mary and Joseph, click HERE.

For more information about Common Pantry, click HERE.

For more information about micro-loans at Kiva, click HERE.

For more information about Feed My Starving Children, click HERE.

Weeks 37, 38 & 39 - Old friends, Misericordia and Covenant House

If you have been keeping track of our charity work, you will certainly have noticed that as Fall approached, we seem to have fallen off the map.  September has been a supremely busy month for both Jen and I, and while we have not stopped doing something every week, I have not been very good about writing about it.  So let me catch you up on what we have been up to...

Over the last three weeks, we have visited a couple old friends.  We had a great distribution session at Lakeview Pantry, where we served a lot of people and had a great time, as we have come to expect.  We also served dinner at the Franciscan House of Mary and Joseph.  That night was great for a couple of reasons.  The first was that there was a family volunteering with two very feisty 8th or 9th grade girls who were really into the work, and were all full of giggles.  It made the night go really quickly and we spent most of it laughing.  That emotion seemed to radiate out into the patrons we served, because the other great thing about that night was how thankful and cheerful all the patrons were.  Often times at this shelter, the people we serve are pretty wrapped up int their own problems and don't have a lot of energy or emotion to spare for thank yous, but when we were there, everyone was kind of upbeat and very grateful.  Obviously we don't go there to be thanked, but when the patrons are thanking you, it gives much more of a chance to connect with them, to look them in the eyes.  Being able to connect like that, even for a moment, is good for the people in the shelter.  It reminds them that even though they are ignored and treated like they don't exist for most of their day on the streets, there are still some people who look at them and see a person, not just a beggar.  In any case, it was one of our better night at the House.

Even before we did either of these things, Jen and her friend Vicki volunteered, as they have for the last handful of years, at the Misericordia Family Fest.  Misericordia is an institution in Chicago that provides housing and development opportunities people with Down's Syndrome and other cognitive disorders.  They have residents of all ages from across the spectrum of functional levels.  They strive to provide not just housing but also enrichment to the live of their residents.  To that end, they provide training in life skills and offer employment to their residents, involving them as wait staff in a cafe, assistants in a bakery and in other small commercial ventures run by the organization.  Residents make art and craft items which are sold to help  cover the immense cost of keeping the facility and all of its service running.  Family Fest is an annual fund raising effort in which Misericordia basically throws a big party staffed by volunteers and the family members of the residents.  They have bingo and games and music and food, much like any other festival.  Because it is held on the Misericordia grounds, there is also a strong component of introducing people to the work of the organization.  Jen has been a big fan of Misericordia for a long time, and also helps with their other fund raiser, called Candy Days, when volunteers fan out thought the city to solicit drivers at busy intersections in exchange for some candy.  She tells me that she and Vicki had a great time at this year's Family Fest, and that she is looking forward to going back next year.

That brings us up to this past week, a week in which we had no time to volunteer.  In place of that, we decided to give some money to a group called Covenant House, which is dedicated to helping homeless children get off the street.

Covenant House was founded in 1972 in New York City as a single shelter for runaways and homeless kids.    In the ensuing 40 years, it has spread across the U.S. as well as south into Mexico and other Central American countries to become the largest privately funded agency in the Americas providing "loving care and vital services to homeless, abandoned, abused, trafficked, and exploited kids."  There are Covenant House locations in 21 cities in the U.S., Canada and Central America, including Anchorage, Atlanta, Atlantic City, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Los Angeles, Managua, Mexico City, Milpas Altas, Newark, New Orleans, New York, Oakland, Orlando, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Tegucigalpa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, D.C.  They served over 50,000 kids in the last year alone.

When a child comes to Covenant House they are immediately given food and a secure place to sleep, as well as clothes and medical attention.  Sadly, almost all of the kids who come to the House need all of those things.  After those physical needs are met, the staff must slowly and carefully try to navigate the minefield of the needs which are not so easily seen or so easily dealt with.  Most of the children who have been on the street for any length of time have experienced some kind of sever abuse.  Many have been forced into prostitution by people they thought of as friends.  Almost all have been abandoned and betrayed enough that getting them to open up to anyone, even the caring staff at Covenant House is beyond difficult.  They have all been scarred, and the long, careful work of helping them back to health in body, mind and soul is exactly what Covenant House does.

Their skill and experience with bringing kids back from the edge of desperation is pretty clear in the excerpt from their website, detailing the mission and vision of Covenant House:

Immediacy

Homeless kids come to Covenant House in crisis. Immediately and without question, we meet their basic human needs – a nourishing meal, a shower, clean clothes, medical attention, and a safe place away from the dangers of the street.

Sanctuary

Homeless kids arriving at our door are often frightened and mistrustful. Young men and women can grow only when they feel safe and secure – Covenant House protects them from the perils of the street and offers that important sense of security.

Value Communication

Lying, cheating, and stealing are common survival tools on the street. Covenant House teaches by example that caring relationships are based on trust, respect, and honesty.

Structure

Homeless kids never know how they will get their next meal or where they will sleep. Covenant House provides the stability and structure necessary to build a positive future.

Choice

Young people often feel powerless to control their lives and fall into a self-defeating cycle of failure. Covenant House fosters confidence, encouraging young people to believe in themselves and make smart choices for their lives.

As you might expect from reading their approach to helping, their success rate is very good, and the web site is filled with stories of kids who have managed to cast aside lives of gangs and prostitution, drugs and alcohol to stand on their own as strong, healthy young men and women.  It is very inspiring reading, if you can stand to hear about the pain and suffering that begins every story.

In the past year, as we have worked around the city, we have seen how hard life on the street can be for adults, and in all of our work around the homeless, we have never seen a single child on his or her own.  Does that mean that there simply are no homeless kids in Chicago?  As much as I would like that to be true, it surely is not.  What it does mean is that organizations who are doing real, tangible good for the homeless people of the city are not reaching the children.  There is no Covenant House in Chicago, and it makes me wonder who, if anyone is serving the disenfranchised kids in our city.  I may very well find out, and give them some money as well, but until then, at least Covenant House is helping the kids in other cities, and I am proud to support them.

For more information on Misericordia, click HERE.

For more information on Covenant House, click HERE.

Week 36 - Lakeview Pantry Produce Pickup

This week Jen and I worked with our friends at the Lakeview Pantry, but we helped out in an unusual way, at least for us.  Instead of helping distribute the Pantry's food, we helped collect it.

The Pantry gets food from many sources.  The largest single source is the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which we have written about in previous posts, but they also get donations from grocery stores like Trader Joe's and from individuals through food drives.  The source that I think is the coolest is the Green City Market, the farmer's market that takes place in Lincoln Park every Wednesday and Saturday throughout the summer. (It goes on during the colder months too, but it goes indoors).  For the last three years, Lakeview Pantry has been giving the farmers at the market an option to donate some of their produce that would otherwise not be sold.  The farmers had been composting those items that would not keep until the next market, or that did not look good enough to sell, but were still fine to eat.  Now, the Pantry comes to the market with volunteers, hands out donation bins to all the farmers, and then collects whatever the farmers have to give.

The Pantry has distribution on Saturday mornings, so when you volunteer for the market run, you are pretty much on your own.  Since we had not done it before, we were careful to get very specific directions about when and how to go about our duties.  We hopped in the Pantry's cargo van and got down to the market ahead of schedule, but we lost some time trying to park.  Parking in the area of the market is always hard, and with all the vendors and all the shoppers, and us in a great big van, it was really just a matter of luck that we got a spot after only three circuits of the area.  Once we "landed" we walked around the market, which was very busy, and found out where we were supposed to be.  The Pantry sets up right next to the composting/recycling/trash area in order to catch any farmers who might not know about the option to donate.  When we got to that spot, we were almost immediately approached by a really nice farmer who was worried that the Pantry was not going to be there that week.  Apparently, they are used to the volunteers coming around with bins earlier than we were told to do it.  It was no worries though.  That farmer grabbed a few bins and went off to pack them up.

We collected the food in plastic bins with hinged tops.  If you have ever been to a farmer's market, you will know what kind of bins I mean - all of the vendors use them.  We brought about 45 of those bins along, with the expectation of filling more than half of them, at least.   The friendly farmer came back twice for more of them.  I stayed with the pile of bins while Jen took some on a cart around to all the vendors.  Since the Pantry has been doing this for some time now, the farmers did not need any convincing.  Basically every vendor who sold produce gave us something.  We also got a flour sack full of buns from a baker.  It was a beautiful day to hanging around in the park, with 70 degrees, sunshine and a light breeze, so we had a wonderful time with our work.

Once all the bins were out and the farmers were all breaking down their tents, we collected the bins and loaded up the van and headed back to the pantry.  We unloaded all of the bins there, weighed them, inventoried what was donated and then refrigerated the bins that needed it (mostly the leafy green and herbs).  It turned out that we had gotten 29 bins full, totaling 877 pounds of produce, plus the sack of bread.  That number makes it a good haul, but somewhere in the middle of the range for the life of the program.  It seems the best load was about 1100-1200 pounds (all apples, tomatoes and cucumbers...) and that the low end is down around 500 pounds.  Looking at all of what we collected, and thinking that it otherwise would have gone to waste, I was really glad that the Pantry puts in the effort to collect it.

It reminded me of a fact that we keep coming across in our volunteer work:  For the last 15 years or so, there has been more food grown on earth than is needed to feed the population of earth.  Right now, we produce enough food to give every person on earth 2800 calories per day.  That is enough to make everyone a little fat, much less to make them healthy.  So why do some people have nothing to eat?  And where are all those calories going?  While some people eat way more than 2800 calories in a day, I can't imagine overeating accounts for the discrepancy.  Food is wasted all the time.  Now, I know why some people have and others don't.  Self-interest and desire to have the most of everything will always beat out the instinct to share and make sure everyone has enough.  But I am still glad we could be a part of collecting a little of the food that isn't good enough for those with access to their 2800 calories and more, and give it to those who need it, even if it isn't polished, pristine, perfect produce.  This was a fulfilling, wonderful day for us, and we will definitely look to do it again.

For more information about the Pantry and its many programs, go to Lakeview Pantry.

Week 35 - The Red Cloud Indian School

It has been a while since we gave money to an organization rather than giving time.  It has also been a while since we gave either money or time to a new organization.  This week, our busy schedules and a great opportunity to make a difference met in a happy coincidence.

In the way of an explanation, we must begin with the sharing of data.  Jen and I have spent our year giving time and money to many organizations.  Sometimes we do this by way of the internet.  Apparently, when a person give to charities over the internet, there is a group of non-profit fairies who make sure that your address is given to every other charity in the world.  All of those charities have now begun sending us mail.  Some of the mail is from serious organizations doing widespread good.  Other mail is from small focused charities aiming at one particular problem in one particular place.  Some organizations are clearly above board while others are pretty shady.  The sheer volume of mail is staggering, but we try to look at all of it because we do like to look for new opportunities to give.

Enter a small envelope from the Red Cloud Indian School.  On the day we got it, there was not a lot of mail for a change.  Jen took a look first, and told me I had to read it too.  The school is located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.  It was founded in 1888, just after the reservation was established, by the historic Chief Red Cloud as a tool to fight the poverty and hopelessness that was attacking the Lakota (Sioux) people then and which is still attacking them now.  In order to understand the challenges this school faces, you have to first understand the Reservation.

Pine Ridge is the second largest reservation in the US, covering 2.8 million acres.  It houses somewhere between 28,000 and 40,000 Lakota tribesmen and women.  The number is hard to pin down because of intense poverty and a reluctance to cooperate with the US government.  Eighty percent of the reservation's resident are unemployed.  Forty-nine  percent of them live below the federal poverty line.  Shannon County, where the reservation is located, is the second poorest county in the US, with an average per capita income of $6,286.  While the poverty numbers are shocking, the more disturbing numbers have to do with young people on the reservation.

Each year, most states conduct a survey relating to youth risk behaviors.  These are things like smoking, alcohol use, suicide, and sexual activity.  The Red Cloud Indian School gives those statistics for the reservation, but I was curious, so I looked up the stats for all of South Dakota so I could compare them.  The data is kind of horrifying.

In 2011, 47% of the high school students in South Dakota said they had engaged in sexual intercourse at least once in their lives.  On the reservation, that number is 67%.  In South Dakota, 69% of high school students have tried alcohol.  At Pine Ridge, the number is 88%.  The numbers for cigarette and marijuana use in South Dakota as a whole were 48% and 33% respectively.  On the reservation, those numbers are 90% and 80%.  The most frightening numbers are these:  18% of South Dakota high school students have considered suicide and 8% have tried.  For those kids living on Pine Ridge, the numbers are 31% and 15% - nearly double.  These are not numbers for the population as a whole - they are for kids, aged 13 to 19.  If that does not speak of the despair that exists on the reservation, I don't know what would.  Also, just to give a local perspective, I looked up these numbers for Chicago.  In all areas, they are slightly higher than the South Dakota numbers, and still drastically lower than the Pine Ridge numbers.

So these numbers combined with the poverty stats tell us a few things.  Pine Ridge has a lot of people, young and old, who are very poor.  It has a lot of people who use alcohol and drugs, and it has a lot of young people who have a lot of things distracting them from getting the education that might let them leave the reservation or stay and help improve the conditions.  This is where the Red Cloud Indian School comes in.

For over 100 years, they have been educating students (currently about 600 per year) from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.  They provide them with the services they need to stay focused on school, from food to counseling to transportation.  Their goal is to create proud, powerful Lakota citizens, and by all appearances, they pursue that goal relentlessly, even in the face of the hardship that is all around them.  It is a lofty goal and  a moving story, and we were moved to help them.

Certainly there are children in Chicago who could use our help, and we would like to help them too, but thankfully we live in a city where there are many people of means, and many organizations doing very good work to help children find a better life.  While I am sure that this school is not the only group on the reservation trying to find a brighter future, I also know that there are not nearly as many groups as we have here.  Help is harder to find on the reservation because nobody has anything.  Sometime, people say that the casinos give the Indians all the money they need, but it that is not even close to true.  The Lakota do have a casino, and if the revenue from that casino was distributed evenly among the people living on the reservation, it would amount to about 15 cents per person per month.  Hardly a windfall...  Life is hard on the reservation - harder than almost anywhere else in the country.  This school is trying to make it better, and Jen and I were proud to help them.

If you are interested in more information about the school, they have a very good website at Red Cloud Indian School.

Week 34 - Common Pantry

This week, we went back to Common Pantry, the closest food pantry to our house, to work with Scott, the manager, and the incredibly fun and devoted group of people there.

To give a quick refresher, Common Pantry distributes food once a week, on Wednesdays in both the afternoon and evenings.  They also do some home delivery and produce distribution at other times during the week, but Wednesdays are the big day. (If you want a few more details, please check on previous posts, especially Week 23).  This time, Jen got to do a new job.  She was one of the people who assisted people as they "shopped" for the food they get to choose themselves.  At this pantry, the goal is to give people a sense of independence to act as counter point to the feelings of dependence brought on by needing to go to a pantry in the first place.  The way they encourage that independence is to give every patron a certain number of points.  These points can be used to pick foods that are not part of the normal package.  They can load up on things they like, or get things they need that are not readily available in the regular distribution.

One thing Jen and I have noticed is that if you get food from a pantry, even from different pantries around the city, you tend to get a lot of the same thing.  Certain foods are just easier to keep fresh or are just more available.  I have been told by many pantry patrons, here and elsewhere, that they have three jars of peanut butter and even more jelly at home, and please don't make me take any more of that stuff!  Canned goods are really prevalent, and toiletries are scarce.  If you want to make a big difference in the life of people who are struggling, donate 50 tubes of toothpaste to your nearest pantry - they never have enough.  If you are considering donating canned beef stew, pick something else.  That stuff is always in stock.  If you want to give soup, give something other than tomato or chicken noodle.  Even if it seems like a long shot in the taste department, someone will be thrilled to try that unusual soup instead of another can of generic tomato.

Because of all this sameness, food can get pretty boring in a big hurry.  By giving the patrons a choice, the pantry is able to use all of the food it gets in from food drives.  That stuff is usually of wide variety and not easily categorized.  More accurately, it does not always fit well with the large shipments of product from places like the Greater Chicago Food Depository.  By putting in out in the choice section, there is no need to give everyone an equal share.  What is there is there, and when it is gone, it is gone.  But it still can provide treats for people who can really use them.

So... Jen spent the night helping the patrons see what was available for them and helping them  pick it out.  In some cases, that meant helping someone find that thing they really need.  In others, it meant reminding them that they were out of points.  Almost always, it meant reminding them that other people were behind them waiting to get in.  Since the pantry is quite small, there is only room for two people to shop at a time, and it is hard to make sure everyone gets a turn.

I spent the night manning the USDA section, which is part of the predetermined allotment of food that is given to the patrons.  I had a good time working with two other guys who were handling the meat and the rest of the packaged food.  It was a busy night for the pantry, serving 35 patrons who account for well over 100 hungry people.  This time we have a lot of big families, with seven or eight family members.  These are always hard for the patrons because they are given so much food that they can barely carry it.  Some bring along helpers, but we also try to at least help them get it out to the street.

Both Jen and I had a great night, and we both remarked to each other about how great the entire staff and volunteer corps are at this pantry.  Every time we are there, we meet new people, re-connect with those we know and spend a lot of time laughing along to the work.  It is always a good time for us.

To learn more about the pantry, go to Common Pantry

Week 33 - Feed My Starving Children

This week we returned to Feed My Starving Children to help pack powdered meals that will be distributed to starving children all over the world.  We have been coming to this center a lot lately, often bringing friends, but this time we were just by ourselves.

Since we did not have enough people to pack at a table (see previous posts for a description of how this all works...) we decided to volunteer for the warehouse crew.  That is the crew that picks up the completed cases of food and keeps the packing tables stocked with raw materials.  On this night, we volunteered to scoop rice and soy powder into the bins that are used at the table to pack.  It involves standing in front of either a 2000# pound sack of rice or a great big box of soy nuggets and scooping out the respective materials with a gallon sized scoop.  It is one of those jobs that is slow at the beginning and the end, but then gets really hectic in the middle.  As usual, we had a great time doing it.  The crowd was large and full of people who were looking to have fun and do a lot of good.  The staff was also pushing for a big night because the previous packing session had not done very well and they were about to complete a shipment headed for Swaziland.

It was a good night of work, and the packers did a pretty good job.  We ended up with 92 boxes, which is, I think, a high for any session Jen and I have been working at.

I am not sure how this number of boxes compares to the number of people working in the session.  They never give that number, so it is hard to tell how empirically fast we were going.  In theory, we should be able to pack one box for everyone working in a session, but I feel like we had more than 92 people at this session.  It is not really important, but it is kind of fun to keep track of it.  What is important is how many meals we prepped for Africa.  The "Kids Fed" number refers to how many children will eat for a year because of this shipment.

For the first time this week we noticed that they are keeping track of the highest totals of boxes packed in a session.  They put up a leader board on the wall of the packing floor.  They did not reference it while we were there, but it is still kind of neat to have something to shoot for.  It also adjusts a little for the size of the crew, in that it gives a number for average boxes from a cell, which is two packing stations loading a single box at a time.  A cell is staffed with 11 to 15 people, depending on how the jobs break down.  The picture I got is a little fuzzy, but you can still see what the board says...

The other thing that was a little new this session was that we heard a new story about one of the kids who received FMSC food.  They often tell these stories because they are kind of amazing.  This one stood out because instead of being on a video, the story was told with laminated pictures that I could also photograph. The following image is of a little boy named Moses, aged four weeks, when he was first brought to a care point that distributes FMSC Manna Packs.  He was malnourished and sick, barely clinging to life:

Moses was given FMSC food as well as medical care.  After a four months,  he looked like this:

Moses went on receiving food and care, and today, three and a half years later, he looks like this:

He is now a healthy young boy, enrolled in school, happy and healthy.  Many of the care points and partner organizations on the ground in the countries where this food is sent use the food as the first step to try to change whole communities.  Kids who are served also have access to schools referred to as leadership academies, with the goal of teaching the children a sense of community responsibility.  They are taught the skills that can lift them out of poverty so that they can turn around and help others.  The aid structure helps them in the moment, and the near term, but also long term so that whole communities are getting the benefits. It is really an inspired system.

So it was another good week.  Next week we will be headed back to Common Pantry.  Come back and read all about it!

If you want more information on FMSC, go to Feed My Starving Children.

Week 32 - The Greater Chicago Food Depository

This week we returned to the Greater Chicago Food Depository for one of their Wednesday re-pack sessions.  The last time we did this, we wound up handling 15,000 pounds of potatoes, and we were unsure what this session would bring.  (To read more about our other work at GCFD, check out previous posts!)  To make things a little more interesting we brought along one of our friends, Sarah.

As it turned out, we had what turned out to be the first kind of disappointing night of our whole volunteering adventure.  It began when we found out that instead of re-packing food, we would be working on the flex line packing emergency food boxes.  Now, don't get me wrong - packing these boxes is a lot of fun, and really helps a lot of people, but we were hoping to do something new and interesting.  The second part of the disappointment came as we worked.

When you pack emergency food boxes, you add one foodstuff to a box that moves along a long conveyor.  You put your food, whatever it is, in the same place in every box, and things are supposed to move pretty quickly.  A new box rolls by about every ten seconds.  The line includes people making boxes and setting them on the line, people filling the boxes with food, people labeling the boxes, and then a series of people who weigh each box, run it through a machine that tapes the top and bottom closed and then lift the box on to a pallet.  Things usually move so fast that there is a whole other round of people who just keep food stock at the fingertips of the box filler and still a third group that does nothing but clean up the packing materials shed by all of the food that is used.

Sadly, on this night, things just did not go very well.  It takes everyone working correctly, something like a hundred bodies all doing exactly the right thing, to have the line work efficiently.  It also takes everyone a little while to get up to speed at the beginning.  This time, it took a long time for people to get up to speed, and so we had to keep stopping the line.  Then, once everyone learned their job, the tape machine kept fouling.  We would run about five boxes and then stop the line for a minute or two while the tape was re-set in the machine and then do it all over again.  What is usually a great, rhythmic groove of a task tuned into a stumbling, frustrating night of standing around a lot.  It seems like the kind of thing I should not complain about, but the constant starting and stopping made what is usually enjoyable teamwork into something much less fun.

I don't want to make it seem like this night was no fun.  We still enjoyed being at the GCFD and we enjoyed working with Sarah.  The night just came as a surprising contrast to all of the other work we have done around the city.  We still did a bunch of good.  We packed 1,039 boxes of food.  About half of these were individual food boxes, designed to have enough food to feed as single person for 3 to 4 days.  The others were family food boxes, designed to feed a family of four for the same time period.  In all, we packed 29,475 pounds of food.  That may seem like a huge amount, but we could have done a lot more if the line had been working more efficiently.  Nonetheless, I am proud of what we did accomplish.  Jen and Sarah were too.  Here is what they looked like when we took a break in the middle of the session:

While we were at the Depository, we also found out a few new facts.  The first was that in a our city of 5 million people, 5.5 million individual visits to food pantries were reported last year.  In Cook county, 1 in 6 people are food insecure, which means they are not sure if they will see their next meal.  There is not part of Cook county in which some part of the population is food insecure, and in some areas, the number is as high as 1 in 3.  That is kind of depressing, given that it means that literally everywhere you look in this city, there are people without enough to eat.

The other news was more upbeat.  It turns out that the GCFD plants and harvests its own corn crop.  Apparently, a person in Marengo, about a hour west of the city, allows the GCFD to use their land to grow corn.  Then they get volunteers to harvest the corn by hand because they don't have the machinery to do it any other way, bring it back to the city and give it to those that need it.  Jen and I thought this was infinitely cool, and we may try to get on a crew to help pick corn.  Watch in the coming weeks to see how that works out!

So, even though it was a disappointing week, we still had a good time and found about another neat way that the GCFD is helping people.

To learn more about the GCFD, go to Greater Chicago Food Depository