Inspired by my friend Meg, who always finds opportunities to volunteer for those in need, I decided I should do something when I arrived in Eureka on July 4, 2011. Food for People is close to my house, has a great name, an inspiring façade, and serves the community as Humboldt County’s official food-bank, with many on-site programs and satellite services (that include 17 pantries and monthly free farmers' markets across the whole county) for those without the resources to purchase adequate food.
I worked with the Mexican immigrants that pick America’s crops for more than 2 decades, and found that too often they cannot afford to eat the food that they pick!
A logical next step in my education about how others live was to get to know some of the many Americans that cannot afford the food that they need, even though it is harvested by poorly paid immigrants.
I was one of three Boomers in a group orientation that occurs every Monday at the Food for People facility on 14th and Summer streets. The other 7 newbie volunteers were “kids” between their mid-teens and late-20s. The diverse group had various motives for wanting to volunteer at Food for People.
Vignette 2: 15-year old “M” says that she volunteers most days at Food for People. I ask why she is spending her summer at a food-bank. She says, “Oh, it’s something to do. My dad grounded me in April, and school and the pantry are the only places I’m allowed to go!” I try to imagine what such an innocent-looking teenage girl could have done to be punished for so long… “Well, maybe he’ll let you slide soon?” I ask hopefully. “I doubt it,” she responds. “I won’t get to do anything else until I finish high school.”
The orientation was thorough, beginning and ending in the front entry area, which contains a reception desk and lobby seating, free food (bread and produce) for anyone that walks in the door, and the all-important “choice pantry” (described at length, below) for eligible clients. In addition, we toured: the intake interview rooms; the hot-meal kitchen; the meeting/eating room; the food prep, cull, pack, repack areas, and adjacent stacks of dry goods, walk-in refrigerator, and 2 freezers all in the “middle” warehouse; and a “back” warehouse with more pallets of staple goods obtained from the federal surplus food program, as well as via ongoing regional food drives.
The Food for People website has a lot of information and numerous photos about the facility, its history, staff, volunteers, newsletters, and programs, as well as how and why every good citizen should donate time, food, and/or cash to our county’s official food-bank. I am presenting a new volunteer’s viewpoint here…
Even on the days when the choice pantry is closed (such as “orientation Mondays”) there are at least a dozen folks performing a variety of tasks to keep all of the Food for People’s programs running. A buzz of goodwill permeates the building, bouncing off of the diverse educational posters on the walls and the pamphlets strewn about on tables that provide facts, figures, and illustrations on the growing need for affordable and nutritious food in the wealthiest nation on earth.
What follows was gleaned from attending 2 successive orientations, my first three days working as a volunteer, and formal and informal interviews with staff, other volunteers, and clients.
In addition to being the food-bank for numerous pantries throughout Humboldt County, Food for People has 12 different programs that provide food to walk-in shoppers, people that suffer a sudden food emergency, seniors, children, and the homebound, among others.
Volunteer coordinator Laura is an energetic dynamo with a newly minted MA from nearby Humboldt State University. She explains many important issues during the orientations. Her presentation style is a blend of enthusiasm, patience, precision, and no-nonsense facts about policies for serving the food-bank’s clients, honoring the donors’ preferences, and following government edicts. The staff webpage claims that Laura plays “a mean violin” too!
Laura also made three key points that are well-known and widely ignored: 1) adequate nutrition is a HUMAN RIGHT for all, not a privilege for some (to be considered further in a later "editorial" post about people and food); 2) most of those without sufficient resources to purchase adequate nutrition are children, women, and the elderly; and, 3) shoppers at Food for People are assisted cheerfully and without judgment, since the circumstances that brought them to the food-bank are much more complex than the stereotypes presented by many in the media and politics.
Laura also made three key points that are well-known and widely ignored: 1) adequate nutrition is a HUMAN RIGHT for all, not a privilege for some (to be considered further in a later "editorial" post about people and food); 2) most of those without sufficient resources to purchase adequate nutrition are children, women, and the elderly; and, 3) shoppers at Food for People are assisted cheerfully and without judgment, since the circumstances that brought them to the food-bank are much more complex than the stereotypes presented by many in the media and politics.
There are many volunteer options to choose from. One of the few that I ruled out was “gleaning,” which may include harvesting fields local farmers have stopped picking. I know how hard farm labor is, even just a few hours a week! So my hat is off to the gleaners; long may they stoop and pick, lift and haul, and provide much of the freshest fruits and veggies that are displayed in the pantry.
However, “gleaning” also includes less arduous work; gleaners often pick up produce already harvested but set aside for the food-bank by local farmers, or left-over after farmers’ markets have concluded. So local farmers deserve a “hip, hip, and hooray” too!
To-date, my primary job has been as a “shopper’s helper.” I love this job because it offers intimate contact with the folks that the Food for People’s choice pantry was created to serve. Many shoppers shower us helpers with praise and affection, even though the staff and other volunteers do the harder, behind the scenes, work. The shoppers may not know who you are and what you do, but I salute all of you unseen heroes! Every time a shopper thanks me, I “send it up” to all of you…
Every new client has an intake interview before they can shop in the pantry. The interviewers are highly trained volunteers that try to identify each client’s overall household needs, and provide any available assistance to get those needs met. There are scarce but still existent public and private resources available to help some obtain low-cost healthcare, childcare, housing, and job training. The intake interviewers provide referrals to eligible clients.
The intake interviewer also finds out if a new client has dietary restrictions or lacks cooking facilities. These issues may lead to adjustments in the types of foods that clients will be able to use. As Laura explained it, “The interview is a chance for us to touch base with those that come to the pantry, and to make sure that we’re serving them to the best of our ability.”
Vignette 3: Ms. “R” looks like a teenage surfer girl, with tie-dyed T-shirt, cut off jeans, and flip-flops. Except THIS surfer girl is way pregnant, and already has 3 step-ladder children waiting for her in the lobby while she obtains an emergency box. “I’m living in a place with a ‘closed kitchen,” she tells me to explain why she doesn’t want to shop in the choice pantry for fresh veggies. "They are packing me a box full of energy bars and trail mix, so I can snack between meals" She shivers slightly, then adds, “I moved home for a few months, but things didn’t work out. Now I’m back in Eureka without any of my warm clothes…”
Of course, because of donor mandates, the client’s household size and income earnings must be determined. Federally subsidized foodstuffs, for example, are provided only to those that are below a specific income level for a given household size.
After intake, each new shopper is introduced to a shopper’s helper. The helpers are given a laminated card that has been filled in by the interviewer. This "shopper's guide" lists all of the categories of food for which the shopper is eligible. These categories include federal surplus goods of various types, fresh fruits and veggies, and canned, packaged, and wrapped goods from dairy, grain, and miscellaneous categories. The amounts and types of food each shopper receives are also determined by the stock on hand when the shopper comes to the pantry.
When I have been a volunteer, at least 3 helpers were on duty, and usually kept busy. They escort the shoppers around the racks and coolers that contain the items then available. Many specific items (especially the fresh veggies and fruits) vary by the season, the day of the week, and even the hour of the day. New food items are constantly flowing in via various sources, after which they are sorted, weighed, and put out on the racks, table, and coolers by volunteers. Of course, items also run out as shoppers select the items that they want.
A separate program allows clients to return once more each month for an “emergency box” (and a bag of fresh produce) that has a few days’ meals. These boxes are put together with the recipient’s individual and household needs in mind. Finally, there are racks with free breads and bins with free produce that anyone can come in and take daily, although the quantities that each walk-in can take from the free area are usually limited.
I was amazed at what I got out of being a shopper’s helper! During the 6 hours I have worked thus far, guiding a few dozen shoppers around the choice pantry, I found that many of my largely unconscious middle-class biases against “the poor” were exposed.
I am a “progressive” when it comes to the situation of new immigrants in the US because I have seen their faces, heard their stories, and witnessed many of their experiences. At Food for People (and a reflection of Humboldt County’s demographics) most of the shoppers I have helped are “white” (like me), and I found them to be much more diverse (and “human”) than I had expected. Then I remembered how the white farm workers from Oklahoma were revealed to be human in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." It was Steinbeck's ability to reveal the humanity in those that had been stigmatized by society that made the book (and subsequent movie) a classic. While the city elite in Salinas, California may use him as a tourist draw TODAY, Steinbeck was vilified, and his books were burned and banned throughout California and elsewhere for decades!
In the 1930s, poor white people were disparaged by many in the media and politics as undeserving "hobos, "commies," and "Okies." Today, new stereotypes keep many Americans from having much sympathy for the destitute; you can probably think of many reasons why you don't want your money going to help the "bums," "hippies," and/or "druggies" that you sometimes label on the streets. Yes, some clients may be able-bodied, while others may be drug-dependent, and/or mentally and/or physically disabled, and the homeless often don't have access to bathrooms, laundry facilities, or clean clothes… However, many of the Food for People's clients have dependents that are innocent of the vices and traumas of their parents, and all of these people are human beings that deserve to eat!
Most of the shoppers that I have helped were humble, or even embarrassed to be at a food-bank. They were also very appreciative of the services that Food for People provides. Most shoppers liked the fact that they got to choose among the fresh and packaged foods available. (At many food-bank pantries recipients just line up for a prepackaged, take-it-or-leave-it box of staples.) Many shoppers at our choice pantry linger over small alternatives; from the dairy category, for example, “Should I get 2 small yogurts, a stick of butter, or a quart of low-fat milk?”
Some decline some foods that they don’t like (or are not familiar with), or items that they know they would not be able to prepare or consume due to their particular living circumstances. Examples of such limitations include not having a stove, or a fridge, a kitchen, or even a stable residence.
Food for People staffers try to accommodate the special circumstances of these shoppers by offering more of those items that the shopper will be able to use; however, the federal program goods are provided with a rigid formula, and those items cannot be adjusted to fit an individual’s needs.
The foods in the choice pantry include the federal surplus staples (including canned, frozen, and refrigerated items in diverse categories from animals to plants), as well as local donations of all types. My favorite area is the fresh fruit and veggie table, which I have seen laden with the following good foods: lettuce and spinach (both bagged and fresh), diverse veggies such as peas, potatoes, onions, parsnips, greens of many types, beets, leeks, and more; and, fresh fruits, such as fresh picked strawberries, oranges, limes, and plums.
Ivy later confided that the first 6 months can be emotionally trying – for volunteers and staff alike – due to the desperate circumstances of too many ordinary Americans. Nonetheless, the overall vibe amongst the staff and workers is a cheerful, can-do spirit that is uplifting, not depressing. As with most other experiences in life, each volunteer brings their personal perceptions into this new environment, and over time perceptions change as new experiences change the person.
Why facilities like Food for People are needed in "The Land of Plenty" (and where food commodities are the nation's biggest export) will be considered in a subsequent post (and will then be linked to here), an editorial on how a globalizing "agribusiness" has turned food from a basic necessity of life into a commodity that requires access to cash to obtain.
Just Lovely! Great examples! While I dream of Winning the Lottery so I can give all my money away; others dream of new Roofs and Wheels (one dubs- whatever that means in its lyrical content?) as if the ones that serve them currently are inadequate... We just can not know the dynamics of possibly the most diverse creature in nature-Us. But Food is Human Right!
ReplyDeleteI thought you might like this post! Thanks for your comments.
ReplyDeleteIt is mind-boggling that food has become a commodity that can be denied to people, including babies, merely because they don't have $$$.
The films "Agribusiness and Hunger" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=733owHYcMf0) and Hungry for Profit document this problem, fyi...
psst...your readers are waiting breathlessly for the promised subsequent post to this. Or at least one of them is...long time no blog. :)
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