by John Aldrich
A sure sign of spring - and food runs just around the corner - are the two Saturday mornings we spend at the warehouse packing Rainbow Food Boxes. Yesterday was the first of these 2 days. It was a beautiful day and we had an outstanding turnout of volunteers to help with the work. It was gratifying to see many new faces along with those of seasoned veterans. Altogether there were about 70 people eager to help our Elders by packing the boxes that will be delivered during the spring food runs to the reservation.
The custom is to start the day with a brief circle outside for general orientation and a Navajo prayer.
Then we got right to work, with new volunteers pairing up with experienced people to load the boxes. As the teams move in a circle around the warehouse the sets of boxes for each Elder are filled with the prescribed food items. When we have an abundance of volunteers, as we did yesterday, some are assigned to handing out items to the "shoppers" to assure that the correct count ends up in each box.
After the boxes are filled, each set receives a pair of labels so that it will ultimately be delivered to a specific Elder. The labels are color-coded for each of our eleven food runs.
The boxes then go to the taping tables where they are taped shut and the labels affixed. The boxes for each food run are stacked together for efficient loading when the time comes for trucks and vehicles to be loaded for the food runs.
New volunteers are typically quite impressed with the level of organization involved in this whole process. The mastermind behind this logistical feat is our congenial ANE program assistant director, C.J. Robb.
On a side note, the award for volunteers in attendance who were furthest from home goes to two amiable and hard working young men from Nepal. They are attending Cottonwood High School here in Salt Lake, and it was a pleasure to have them join us.
Here are some additional shots from yesterday's activity.
Next Saturday, March 19th at 8:00 a.m., we will converge on the warehouse once more to complete the process of packing the Rainbow Boxes. We would love to have you join us. The work is not strenuous and everyone has lots of fun.
See you then!
