M.A.D.D. 2016 – All Hands on Deck

Ever wondered what happens at a food bank and how all of that food makes its way into the hand of those who need it most? People and grocery stores donate, and then the real work begins: the food has to be sorted. Some products may have been damaged during their life from the factory to the shelves of the Second Harvest Food Bank. As a sorter, the job is to determine whether or not an item is salvageable. Cans, boxes of pasta, bottles of water, and other items end up in large bins (for further sorting!) or smaller boxes if they must be discarded for safety reasons.

This year at Career Path Services, we had two teams visit the food bank on separate days for scheduling purposes. Our first team spent their time packaging thousands of pounds of frozen french fries, a brisk endeavor that can leave the fingers numb, but the heart satisfied. The second team spent their time sorting almost 13,000 pounds of food and toiletries. Personally, I found myself surprised at the number of food items I’d never heard of before (bacon wrapped up like a granola bar?) and the sheer amount of product needed to ensure the people of Spokane aren’t going hungry.

While our efforts on those days were notable, there is always more to do. In 2015, over 7000 volunteers provided 64,000 hours of  services to provide food for 55,000 hungry people. If you’d like to become a volunteer at Second Harvest food bank, you can check out the volunteer page on their web site.