Friday, December 24, 2010

Holiday Volunteering at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank - December 18, 2010

For the month of December, I wanted to give back in two ways. The first was to help feed the hungry and the second was to give toys to children who have never had or will not have a Christmas this year. Unfortunately, the gifts to children organization cancelled at the last minute. I was pretty bummed about that, but there is always next year. So, I ended up at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank giving back to the hungry.


 
We arrived at a giant warehouse in the heart of Los Angeles. It was pouring rain in the early hours of the morning, but regardless of the weather, over 50+ volunteers showed up to donate their time. This was the first time I had ever worked with this organization and was a bit excited to see what they had in store for us. We watched a video that showed us where the food comes from and who it helps out. It was interesting to know that the bulk of the donations come from large organizations. The food that get sorted by the volunteers gets delivered to senior citizens, children whose families cannot afford to eat on a regular basis, and many more.


We were assigned the duty of "Juice". As you can see, it meant placing 2 large bottles of apple juice into the plastic bags that were inside the bins. This was our job for the next three hours. It was amazingto see the rows of people setting up the bins and bags, then to go down the row and see one volunteer after another placing their specific item into each bag. By the end of the day, we were tired, yet happy knowing that our dirty hands and aching shoulders would help someone else have a meal for the day or even week.



It was quite a sight to see all the bins stacked  up high for just a few hours of work. Definetly worthwhile!


(Note: These pictures were taken from my iphone rather than my D40)

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