Week 2 Post 2

So yesterday was my first day at the food pantry where we had to prepare the actual meal instead of having a group bring it in. Me and my supervisor Kenn had discussed this on Friday and had been planning on using a case of zucchini he had ordered for another meal that had to get used before it spoiled. When I came in Monday morning though I found out that we had a change of plans as we had many fresh hotdogs and hamburgers donated to us. This called for a picnic!!! It was pretty exciting. So we made a list of everything that had to get done and at the top of that list was hard boil the eggs for potato salad. As mentioned in an earlier post though we have had a shortage of eggs therefore we had a dilemma. Kenn got on the phone and finally got someone to bring us six dozen eggs so we could use some for the potato salad and some for the salad bar. Phew. So all went well, we made the potato salad and our new volunteer decided that she should carry the thirty pound bowl of potato salad across the room. I just had a feeling this was a bad idea but I knew she was eager to be as helpful as possible so I was guiding her across the room when BAM she falls on the ground. It was like it happened in slow motion. I watched the potato salad fall and all I could think was we have ten minutes until it's time to serve and Kenn is going to kill us. Luckily the potato salad managed to stay in the bowl so all of our lives were spared.

Week 2 Blog 1

So yesterday was the start of my second week at the food pantry and I'm still loving it! I have come to realize that since it is a food pantry and a non profit organization that being out of stock of certain items happens fairly frequently... For example on Friday we ran out of milk and the milk delivery didn't come on time so no one got milk if they visited on Friday. And then on Monday we had no eggs because the delivery got messed up and won't have any until Wednesday. Since a lot of the food given out is donations from stores such as Shaws, Trader Joes and Crosby's you can never be certain exactly what we will and won't have. We usually get a lot of the same things but you never really know. I believe it is three times a week that the truck goes to the Greater Boston Food Bank to pick up food, so the things we get from there are a given. Sometimes in the Trader Joes donations though we get crazy awesome things. Like one day we had prime rib and yesterday we had chicken liver patte with truffels. While I don't eat meat I know these are both very good products and the clients were stoked to get them. We also got a box of bathroom supplies like body washes, soaps, bandaids and we even got these weird mechanical food exfoliater things that looked gross but I guess people use them. People love getting these since they are normally expensive to purchase.

Week 1 Blog 4

I started Friday with my morning shelf stocking and then around eleven Andrea came and got me to get ready for my first Healthy Food Taste Test. Every Friday Emerson Market takes place at the food pantry, it's like a free farmers market. So one of my projects is to prepare a healthy recipe for people to try and hand out copies of the recipe. Andrea makes food for an elementary school salad bar though so I just work with her and make whatever she is making. This week we made Popcorn Cauliflower which sounds weird but it was delicious. It was cauliflower tossed in olive oil, lots of tumeric, cinnamon, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and salt and pepper. We then roasted it and I put it into individual tasting cups. It seemed like a big hit! Then I got to have a peanut butter filled chocolate cupcake that someone offered me and it was delicious! Then I spent the rest of the day in the food pantry where we ran out of eggs and milk so people were bummed. But there was this really nice couple that came in who I helped. We can give each person one item of random extra stuff we get, like soap or body wash or lotion so I mentioned we had muscle rub and the guy was pumped! He said how his back had been hurting and how he was going to have his girlfriend give him a back massage so it was nice to help them out.

Week 1 Blog 3

So Thursday was a very eventful day at the food pantry as usual! I started off the morning with my usual shelf stocking procedure until Bill, the head of the pantry, said we were short volunteers. What I didn't realize was this would mean I would have to help customers, yikes. So he gave me a quick introduction to the system and left me with my first client so that was a little scary. You have to go to the waiting room and get whoever is next and bring them in and check their intake form. So you take their form and check their name and address against the photo I.D. they give you. After I did this I would have them pick out their bread and produce while I put their info into their file on the computer. The computer also tells you how long it's been since their last visit, and they can only come once a week so I'm scared someone is going to come in too soon and I'm going to have to turn them away. Anyways I figured it out really quickly, I was just nervous because me forgetting one canned good or something can make an impact on how much someone gets to eat that week. On the intake forms there's a question that says "how often do you miss a meal because of lack of food?" and it breaks my heart every time I see every day or once a week or often even.

Week 1 Day 2

So today was my second day at The Open Door! I absolutely love my internship and I have so much fun. I was late today by accident because my watch magically set itself an hour back when I was sleeping. I woke up at what I thought was 9 in the morning and figured I had half an hour to get ready. So then I checked my phone and saw it was actually 10 in the morning, and I'm supposed to be there by 10. I got ready quickly and called my supervisor and thankfully she wasn't upset at all even though I was late on my second day. Definitely setting two alarms for tomorrow... Anyways I started off my day stocking the shelves and bringing in donations and putting it all away where it goes. We got a ton of 5 pound containers of chicken salad donated that expires in a few days so the clients were stoked to get a ton of chicken salad. I then took my lunch break and ate by myself since there's no real lunch time and everyone seems to eat by themselves at their desks so I just kind of decide when and where I want to take lunch. Then Kenn, the guy who runs the community meals program came in so I got to start my favorite part of the day! First I scrubbed down the sink and shelves where the spices are kept which wasn't that bad. There was already a group coming in with dinner prepared for that night so we just made a side of this awesome parmesan roasted brocoli to serve with their beef stew and rolls. The meal was a little chaotic because we didn't have quite enough people but it was alright and we managed.

Week 1 Blog 1

My SCORE project didn't start until this week because of conflicts so this Monday was my first day! I am interning at The Open Door Food Pantry working in the food pantry and helping with the community meals program. During my internship I have some projects I will be doing such as doing a healthy food taste test, which is taking some sort of excess produce we have that week and preparing a healthy recipe for people to try as they come through Emerson Market. Emerson Market is a sort of farmers market that takes place every Friday at The Open Door that makes fresh produce available to people who may not have access otherwise. So I am excited to start that this Friday! I'm there Monday, Wednesday, Thursday from 10 to 6, but I usually stay until 7 to help clean up. I come in the morning and stock the shelves in the pantry, go through the produce cooler to make sure we have enough of everything and make sure there's nothing that has gone by, and help unload the trucks when they come in with donations. I do that until about 12:30 and then I take my lunch break. Then for the afternoon I help prepare the dinner that is being offered that night! It's actually really fun and I get to try some of the stuff we make. So that's what I did on Monday for my first day as well as meeting with some people who I'll be working with throughout my internship.

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