filling boxes...

.. by taking grocery items out of one box and putting in a different box. Volunteering this morning at the local food bank: Feeding the Valley. We were recruited from all the local Publix stores to go and donate our time. Some were filling boxes and others were digging in a small island in the middle of the parking lot, preparing for building the forms to start a raised bed garden.

I was with a group of about two dozen who spent the morning putting supplies in boxes that I assume will go to people in need who live in the surrounding counties. I readily admit that the combination of staples being put into each small corrugated box was an odd assortment, but suppose if you are struggling to find food and provide for your family you wold be thankful for anything. Into each box: a gallon jug of water, a half gallon of juice, a small jar of peanut butter, a small box containing an assortment of snacks including granola bars and crackers, two 2 pound bags of dried beans, two bags of dried figs. Lastly twenty tiny packets of jelly, similar to what is provided when you go through the sausage-biscuit drive through. No carbs, no rice, nothing veggie-like.

Someone started the process by taking a flattened carton from a stack and turned it into a small rectangular box. Closing up the bottom and starting it along the assembly line, with items being added by workers all along the twenty foot section of rollers. Liquids, snacks, non-perishable items, across a U-shaped connector, and pushed back along another twenty foot section, where the rest of the items were added. Top flaps folded in to close the box. Shoved into the taping machine, then stacked on a pallet and shrink-wrapped to keep the boxes securely together for transfer with a fork lift.

About every twenty minutes we would come to a complete halt while an employee went off with a pallet jack and brought back another stack of cases of whatever we had run out of. Or the machine that had gigantic rolls of tape to seal the top and bottom flaps of the box would run out and we stopped while someone from the food bank reloaded the huge rolls of tape. Or the guy driving the fork lift would be called to come in and haul a palletized stack of filled cartons to store in a different area of the warehouse.

My commitment was only for half a day, so after we all stopped for a lunch break, I left. Taking my sandwich and bottle of water with me, departed to take a stroll down the bike path that meanders all the way across town to the river, and enjoy the scenery. Where I happened upon some beautiful native azaleas someone (possibly the city, as they maintain the walking trail/path?) planted along the verge, where the grass turns back into woods as the trail winds through the area where along the rail bed where freight trains traversed long gone rails.