Thursday, December 18, 2014

CIA/ETM Visit to Ottawa Food Bank

Each month CIA and ETM spend a Tuesday doing some sort of outreach/mission work in the Ottawa community.  
This past October 14th we went once again to the Ottawa Food Bank to help sort food.  


They have a new volunteer room (it was closed because of a water leak the last time we were there). 
Nice place. 
A good place to gather and talk a bit about what the food bank is all about.  



Our drivers for the night...well, not Sarah.  : ) 


Some of our grade 7's at the back of the room.  
Must not have been enough seats.  : ) 


We gathered  in the sorting area and we are instructed on what to do.  


Last year they changed the way they do the sorting.  
A much nicer way to organize things.  


Once the instructions were given we were let loose to sort.  


The system works by having some people take the bags that were given to the food bank and placing them at the sorting tables and emptying them.  


Then the sorters take the goods and place them into various boxes of the same stuff.  


Kyle is beginning his work.  


Once the boxes are filled, they are labelled, taped shut and placed on skids.  Daniel and Jared are doing that now.  

It's amazing how much fun you can have working when you are doing it with friends.  : ) 


Miranda deciding where the cans of goods have to go.
Sometimes it's not so easy to figure out.  

The food just keeps coming.  :) 


Simon took on the job of box maker
(along with others too).  


Elizabeth, Gillian and Maddi (short for a longer name : ) ) 
gathering the food from the bins.  
Some of the bags come in quite damaged.



Hey Alexa. 
Still trying to avoid my pictures I see.  


Ella finishing up a box full of something.  


The boys waiting to make more boxes.  

Organized chaos.  : )  



Hmmmm, I wonder where this goes? 
Oh, just putting thoughts into Michelle's mind 
for the moment.  : ) 


Amidst all the work, relating also happens.  



The bin is getting emptier, 
but there's always another to take its place.  


Chris placing the full boxes on skids, 
ready for distribution to smaller food banks.  


Ryan took up the task of gathering 
all the empty plastic bags for recycling.  


Sometimes it wasn't so easy finding the correct pallet 
on which to place the box...right Jeannine?....


....especially if the wording is upside down. 



A listing of all the foodbanks or food giving organizations that the Ottawa Foodbank supports.  
I am continually amazed at that list.  

The box-making and stacking continues.  


Caralynn and Carraugh hard at work.  


Hard at work....or are they?
hmmmmmm


Such a thoughtful pose Seth.
Now get to work!


Peter keeping a watchful eye. 


Karen and I involved in some sort of heated discussion.
What's happenin' Lucy???


Yet another box to be procured for filling by Simon.  
Set the tape gun...


move it across the box.....


get ready to cut.....


cut has been made....


and voila.... another work of pride is completed.  : ) 

With a fancy box flip for added good measure. : ) 

Nice Jonathan.  


Oh, yes, the sorting continues.


Jared with all kinds of water. 


Daniel loves to pose for the camera.
Hmmm, who's giving him a wet willy though...gross.  : ) 


And the sorting continues.  


Even I did some work this evening.
Shocking...I know.  : ) 


The bin is almost empty....


Time to fold it up.

But Kevin, you need to get OUT of the bin first.  


Arggghhhh, we have overcome.  


Thomas making short work of gathering the peanut butter for placement into boxes.  


Laura sealing yet another box.  


This was just a nice picture of all the boxes 
lined up for filling. 
Looks more like an assembly line.  


As you can see, I don't like MY picture being taken.  : )


Our tape guns don't always cooperate, as Zoe found out.  


Hmmm, how do you get the stuff to the tables when you are inside the food bins...hmmm?


Laura and Heather still having fun.  


Hello there Elayna.  : ) 




Hmmm, that box of corn flakes looks pretty damaged.  
I think we still pack them, 
but dented cans of food we don't.  


Nice smile Jonathan.  


Yours too Thomas. 

And the packing continues....


and the bins get emptied....


and Elayna continues to have fun. 


We have been working for about 1.5 hours now.  
Down to our last two bins.  



Kevin giving a lesson on how to skin a pineapple. 


Caralynn places her heavy box in its proper place.  


Daniel about to do the same thing.  


On the home stretch. 
The group is still having lots of fun though. 

Another good picture that just needs to be shown. 


Elayna showing off her muscles.  
Kevin taking a picture with a phone.  


More tape issues.


Marc helping out. 


One of the boxes with cereal I think, or was that dry goods...hmmm?




We are DONE!!
Before we leave some words of thanks and explanation. 
Did you know that even though the food is really appreciated by the Food Bank, 
they really prefer $$ donations..... more efficient 
and they get to purchase foods they know they need.  
Something to think about.  


When we started these pallets were pretty much empty. 
Lots of great work done.  


We end with a group shot. 
Thanks to all of you who helped out. 
We did even better than last year when it came to the amount of food we sorted and boxed. 
Way to go!