Something Learned at Food Pantry

More of the same on Wednesday, but for this:

I wrote earlier about how having one of those two-wheeled grocery carts is such a boon. I was passing out the groceries Wednesday when a woman showed up with her 12-ish-year-old son.

"I kept him out of school today to come with me," she said.

She probably noticed my head jerk back when she said that, and defended herself, "Well, I HAD to! I don't have a car, and I have to carry these bags one and a half miles!"

Food Pantry

This was the scene when I arrived at Food Pantry this morning. They had opened the doors early, and 200 people were already inside.

By the time the doors closed at 12:30 p.m., 415+ families had been served. Luckily, we had a lot of volunteers from the Methodist Church that hosts the pantry. I spent most of the morning breaking up boxes that had contained food, then stuffing them into other boxes for disposal. This is exhausting work for older guys like me.

Last night, 40 bags of groceries were prepared ahead of time specifically for first-timers, who didn't get a full distribution today. We ran out of these bags at about 11 a.m., so I switched jobs to prepare more.

This is what each of these first-timers got:

• 1 box of instant oatmeal
• 1 can of tuna
• 1 can of fruit
• 1 can of green beans
• 1 can of pork & beans
• 2 apples (later, when I was running low, 1 apple)
• 3 onions about the size of golf balls

I prepared 28 bags.

Keep your family and friends close, and be thankful.