Food Delivery

by John Aldrich

In pursuit of the goal to assist our Elders, the delivery of food, both in the form of food boxes as well as food certificates is central to our mission. As we get ready for the fall food runs, the first step in preparing to pack the Rainbow Food Boxes is to get the food to the warehouse. C.J. had worked out the order with a Walmart several miles away, and yesterday it was time to move it. Boyd Mitchell, who is practiced at this activity, rented a large Penske truck, and in the course of two round trips the food arrived at the warehouse and then had to be moved to designated spots around the periphery of the warehouse and unloaded from the pallets.

Waiting for the first truckload, some of us quickly realized that we had missed the memo about the proper attire for the day.

When the truck arrived, however, everyone forgot they thought they had signed up for a vacation to Hawaii and got to work.

Maneuvering the pallets off the truck is tricky, but Boyd is highly skilled at this and had no trouble .

Sam was our pallet jockey and is helped here by Lamar as they move canned food to its designated location at the perimeter of the warehouse.

Not to be outdone by the guys, Gene Berry rolled up her sleeves, donned her gloves, and worked just as hard as any of the rest of us.

Then it was on to peanut butter as Gene, Tony, John, and Jason formed a line to move the heavy packages off the pallet.

While C.J. and Lamar did the same with cans of corn.

Tony is working here on an inventory of the delivered food,

while C.J. checked his master list.

The second truckload was somewhat delayed by circumstances at Walmart, and some of the volunteers had to leave. Those that remained to the end paused for this final photo.

Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who came out to help with this big job. We're well on our way now with preparations for the upcoming food runs. The next major volunteer-intensive task will be packing the Rainbow Boxes. This will happen on two successive Saturdays, August 2nd and 9th. Details and time can be found on the Volunteer Activities page of our web site. We hope to see you then.