Lakeview Pantry West

Location: Lakeview Pantry West

Date: Saturday, June 08, 2013; 10:00 am-1:30 pm

A few days before the project I got an email from Drew the Volunteer leader, asking if I would be willing to lead in his absence.  Considering I would be faced with the prospect of leading at Serve-A-Thon within a week I was comfortable doing so, but indicated to Drew that he should check with Chicago Cares if there was going to be an issue with me leading.  I spoke with Amy from Chicago Cares and she said that I had their support and sent over the sign-up sheets for the volunteers.  Furthermore, my name appeared as the leader for the project on their website as well.  For the first time, I was going to lead for an Ongoing Program. 

My name appeared as a leader

So this Saturday morning I wore my ‘Volunteer Leader’ t-shirt and arrived at Lakeview Pantry 15 minutes prior to the project time. The entrance was locked and I saw a woman waiting at the door.  He name was Wendy, and she was not on my list of volunteers.  I learned that she was volunteering with Lakeview Pantry and had been doing so for some time.  As we waited, another woman arrived and she was my volunteer Melissa.  Now, although this was my first time meeting her, Melissa is a legend with Chicago Cares and had even won the prestigious ‘Volunteer Of The Year’ award in 2011.  As we discussed her experiences with Chicago Cares, Carrie arrived to let us in.  I had met Carrie during my only prior visit to Lakeview Pantry and she is one of the top site reps that we have with Chicago Cares and an all-round nice person.  We went downstairs and were soon joined by our other volunteers, Rocky, Ram, Megan and Shikhi.

Important food tips

Carrie gathered us and started handing out tasks, first of which was to get all of the donated stuff out of the van that Carrie had just driven in.  We started grabbing some things like printer, chair, books, clothes hanger, coffee maker and some other random stuff.  After we got that, Rocky, Shikhi and I started putting these in the back room while Melissa, Megan and Ram were organizing the food items in the shelves up front, along with another couple who was volunteering with Lakeview Pantry.  One we were done at the back, we all joined the stocking efforts in the front, with Shikhi and Ram on bread, Megan on produce, Melissa on herbs, Rocky on meat and me helping out with fruits or wherever required.  In the meanwhile, Carrie had gone out get some more food from a collection store and when she returned, we went outside to unload the van and then every food item had to be weighed and stacked.  Now we were on the homestretch before the final distribution and Carrie allocated duties.  Megan would distribute the produce, Ram would do the bread, the couple who were volunteering together would be on canned goods and Rocky would stay at the meat station.  Melissa would work with Wendy on the computer to register the guests and Shikhi would be at the entrance to the room to welcome the guests, hand out numbers and take down their names.  Since I was the leader, I would be floater who would help wherever required and check on the volunteers and run for stuff from the freezers or backroom. 

The guests had started assembling and Carrie asked them to come in around 11:20 am.  She made a few announcements on how the proceedings would take place and then we were ready to serve.  There was a definite system where everyone was called as per the number they had and then registered with Wendy and Melissa.  Depending on the number of people in the family they were allocated a fixed amount of food at each station.  The first station was meat and Rocky was giving out different types of meat as per the number of people in the household.  The guests then kept going down the line, picking up canned goods, bread and finally produce.  I was checking on all of my volunteers, making sure that they were doing fine.  Melissa, who has been a leader with Chicago Cares, knew the drill and we joked that this was part of the job.  The folks handing out food were very busy and I tried to assist through helping Carrie register a new guest who was visiting for the first time and also carrying stuff from refrigerator for Rocky.  He was also handing on prepared food items like Sandwiches and Salads and many had to be handed out today, else they would have to be thrown out. 

And always important to remember our mission

Rocky was doing a great job, but there was a bottleneck at the canned goods section and so Carrie asked if I could help out over there.  I went over and started handing out canned tuna and vegetables and fruits, particularly canned peaches, which were the most popular and were flying off the shelves.  During this time I saw a gentleman whom I had run into at the ‘Green Festival’ and ‘Inspiration Café’, as he was one of the guests collecting the food.  He told me that I was everywhere and I couldn't argue against that!  Barring a few issues, the line moved very fast and soon we were done.  Carrie was wrapping up and Shikhi came to compare his notes with her.  They couldn't read one of the names and this led to Carrie discussing genealogy and how various races came into being and the associated handwriting.  There really is never a dull moment with Carrie around. 

Before we departed Carrie gave me the statistics and we had served 57 individuals and 38 families today.  I would need to provide these numbers to Amy so that she can record in the system.  I thanked all of the volunteers for their hard work and reminded them about Serve-A-Thon.  I left that day proud of having survived my first project as a leader.  But a leader is only as good as their team and in that regard, I was probably the best leader Chicago Cares could have had that day!