My supervisor had left me, I was on my own, and the apple bin was getting dangerously low.
But with a few hints and a point in the right direction from fellow volunteers, the bins were filled and the whirl of service continued at the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank.
I joined Staff Reporter Carol Ladwig recently in a volunteer shift at the North Bend food bank. I’d written plenty of stories about the place, but Director Heidi Dukich wanted us at the Record to see what distribution day was like, first-hand. In my three-hour turn as produce manager, I didn’t have a lot of time for interviews, nor did I take many names or photos. However, I did get a good sense of the use that the place is put to, as well as the efficiency with which its dozen or so volunteers run the place.
The morning began with training for the newbies, then a huddle and prayer. After that, doors opened for the already-gathering crowd. The rush ebbed and surged, never letting up for hours. Some volunteers signed in the people who rely on the bank for food, dubbed clients. Others ensured they got an appropriate amount for their families. Still others hauled and stacked incoming and outgoing donations, sorting the good produce from not-so-good. The main criteria: throw out anything you wouldn’t eat.
With hundreds of people arriving to fill their families’ shopping lists, the morning sped by as I hauled tubs and sacks to refill bins with hearty, colorful bounty.
The morning got a little crazier when carloads of donations arrived, with seemingly no place to go. Yet a number of strong-limbed volunteers appeared to hustle the bags and boxes, somehow fitting them inside the bank’s small building.
Clients aren’t judged or lectured by the volunteers, and in turn shop with courtesy and calm. Volunteers were good-natured and helpful, and I can see why some give of their time, year-in and year-out.
It was refreshing to do this work, so different from a daily news grind. I’m planning to return again, and perhaps check out food bank operations elsewhere in the Valley.
I was very impressed to see this well-oiled charitable machine in action.
You can be a Helping Hand hero, too
You can help the food bank in its mission to feed the Valley’s hungry. Mount Si Food Bank is in need of volunteers to help sort and distribute food to clients. People are needed as drivers, transporting food from grocery stores.
Farmers and gardeners are also sought to accept the discarded produce, sorted out by food bank staff, for their livestock or compost. Harold Erland of Snoqualmie Valley Elk Group already has dibs on the apples and oranges, however, as bait for the big elk study.
Helping Hand Food Bank is located next to North Bend Library at 122 E 3rd St., North Bend. You can call the office at (425) 888-0096 or just come by on any Wednesday.
• Contact Valley Record Editor Seth Truscott at editor@valleyrecord.com. -: CLEANED :-