Volunteering

I've been volunteering one or two mornings a week at a local charity which gives out free food to needy people who live in our district.  It operates out of a small office owned by a church, and has a trusty brigade of volunteers, mostly women in their 70's.  Needy locals get a referral from the citizens advice bureau and can turn up once a month.  There is a constant demand: today we were flat out.  I work out the back in the storeroom, filling orders and restocking the shelves.  We get our fresh food from the local Aldi supermarket who give us fruit and veg which is wilting but usable.  The rest comes from a charitable warehouse called Foodbank which operates in Dandenong; I'm not sure if what we get is free or is paid for by the church.  In any case, we are rarely without customers; today was no exception.

One client really struck me; she would have been about 25 and was nursing a young baby.  She had 6 kids to feed.  When I filled in her order I chucked in lots of extras that weren't on her 'shopping list'.  As people arrive they wait their turn then go into the office and have their needs assessed by another volunteer, who asks them which items they would like from a staple list that we generally have, although there's always anomalies due to variations in the stock provided from Foodbank.  I have to keep the office person abreast of what we have out the back and when we run out of an item.  It's fun, physical and rewarding; as I give the bags of goods to people in the waiting room they say thankyou and smile.  I love giving food away to people.  Our last customer today was a lady who hadn't been able to afford easter eggs for her kids; she spied some on the shelf behind me and asked if she could please have 2 chocolate bunnies; I gave her the biggest 2 I could find.  Even if she was scamming I didn't mind.

We get a few scammers coming in; people with multiple names and ID's who try and rort the system; or who lie about having kids when they don't have any. There's not much you can do about that.  I figure the majority are genuine, and there's probably an element of desperation in the scammers themselves.

My psychologist suggested I try out for a job at a supermarket doing shelf stacking or some mindless stress less activity: I know there'd be an element of stress in a supermarket, I've been there before.  But it's not a bad suggestion; I will try and pursue it with my employment counsellor, a new one whom I've yet to meet.  I had hoped she'd contact me this week but as yet no luck.  If I don't hear by Monday I'll email my old consultant (who got a promotion in the same organisation) to see what's up. In the meantime the volunteering is filling a void in my life and helping me feel like I'm being useful for a change.