Volunteer Day (t-11)

One thing that I had not done in my first 30 is do actual volunteer work. Don't get me wrong, I'll help people out but I'd never served at a soup kitchen or cleaned up animals at a shelter. I think the most I did was Adopt a Highway and Habitat for Humanity (a whole 2 days total). And that was for my hours in the sorority. Not exactly the volunteering that I had pictured.

So today, I signed up to work for the Chester County Food Bank. I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting into but I signed up anyway and off I went this morning to help.

When I got to Waterloo Gardens, I realized that there was a huge garden in the back and a few people were already there. I pulled up, got out of the car, and said "I guess this is the garden" to one of the guys working for the Food Bank. Stupid thing to say I guess. Duh! It's a freaking garden.

Anyway, he told me that we were picking cucumbers and lettuce today. Grab a bucket and start  picking this row. Not a very glamorous job, I have to be honest. Also, I have the anti-green thumb. Give me a plant and I assure you, I'll kill it. Luckily I wasn't planting, just harvesting the food. *phew*

After picking the rest of the cucumbers, we had to wash them and bag them to be taken to the food bank. Others had already moved on to picking the lettuce and bringing it over to clean. Did you know that after you pick lettuce, it needs to go straight into a cold water bath so that it doesn't wilt? Yeah, I didn't either.

They were plopping lettuce on the grated tables and we were just washing our fingers off. After it was washed, it went into the bags as well.

Not even 1/4 of what we got today

After it was all said and done, the three hours that I was there- we picked over 400 POUNDS of food. That's A LOT of food. Now I realize that it's nothing compared to the need but it felt good to help these nice people out and hopefully save them some sunburn or heat stroke.

I will continue to go back. It was nice to just pick food, wash it, and get it ready for the food bank. Nice day for it too!

Up tomorrow: Camping with Noah and Ayden...yeah this should be HYSTERICAL!