Northwest Harvest

Yesterday, I volunteered with Northwest Harvest through CAAP packaging up sliced potatoes and beans for needy families.

"Northwest Harvest is the only statewide hunger relief agency in Washington. It operates the Cherry Street Food Bank in Downtown Seattle and secures over 18 million pounds of food for distribution through warehouses in Grays Harbor, King, Stevens and Yakima counties. In an average month, these programs provide approximately one-half million services to people in need." - From the NW Harvest Website. The really impressive part is that they do all this without federal funding.

Altogether over the course of an hour and a half, myself and about 20 others managed to bag over 3000 lbs of potatoes and beans. The potatoes we packaged were already peeled and sliced into 1/2" discs and frozen. It was amazing seeing the huge blocks of potatoes being dropped down into the bagging area as we worked frenetically making 1 lb bags of potatoes. To maximize efficiency the tasks were divided in assembly line fashion. Some people chipped at the frozen potato block, some shovelled potatoes into bags, others sealed the bags while yet others boxed it all up. It was weird suddenly taking on the role of a factory worker and it made me wonder what it would be like doing the same task every day eight hours a day. Although, I'm betting that McCains (KC tells me that this is a Canadian brand, but I don't believe him) has an all automated process. I also pondered possible recipes using sliced potatoes, pommes anna, potatoes au gratin, garlic mashed potatoes? In any case, volunteering was a good reminder that we're lucky to have the luxuries that we have.