Articles
From time to time we will feature the experience of someone in connection to the Kawartha Lakes Food Source. This article is from one of our many food sorters in the warehouse.
THE RIGHT SORT: WHAT HAPPENS INSIDE THE KLFS WAREHOUSE
Before I volunteered to be a sorter with the Food Source, I had no idea really what I would be doing. I knew that I wanted to help in some way, and knew that I had only a couple of afternoons a month to volunteer, and that I would be "sorting" food. How difficult could that be?
Where the food comes from
The Food Source gets its food from many different places.
- People ask for food instead of gifts at their parties;
- the high schools have competitions to see who can collect the most Kraft Dinner;
- different departments in companies and hospitals have their own competitions each year to win “most food collected”.
Then there are the very public food drives that take place at our local grocery stores, the 10th annual food drive recently held in Lindsay, Oakwood and Little Britain, where residents are asked to leave a bag of food outside their front door. Finally, grocery stores have a huge reclamation centre in Toronto where overstocked and damaged packaged goods are sent; the Food Source hires a truck to drive to Toronto to pick up a share of that too.
How we sort it
When food arrives from all these sources at our warehouse, it is stacked on pallets ready for the sorters, armed with safety shoes and a sense of humour, to do their job. A pallet of food is brought to the centre of our sorting area; around the room are boxes with numbers and names on them that correspond to inventory categories such as canned vegetables, soup, pasta, fish, etc. As we sort items into these boxes, we look over each one carefully, checking the best-before dates and its condition, deciding whether the item is fit for consumption.
Dented cans are okay as long as they don't have bad creases, which may mean that the food inside has been contaminated. Any can that is bloated or rusty is obviously out, as is anything you yourself wouldn't want to eat. We ask each other and the warehouse supervisor when we aren't sure if something is still good. We get bashed cereal boxes, but if the contents are still sealed, we wrestle (okay I wrestle) with the large tape dispensers to seal up the box and put it in the correct category.
A big expense for the Food Source is the disposal of past-dated or ruined food. Category boxes are considered filled when they reach a certain weight or number of items. We then stack each completed box to one side for the warehouse supervisor to check over and count the items. He has an inventory sheet with a list of the categories that he puts this number beside. The warehouse supervisor then totals the quantities in each category and submits to the office.
This sorting process lasts two weeks each month, three if it is a month with an extra week. The other weeks are then the weeks for picking orders and distribution.
How the food gets out to clients
Each month the member agencies (better known to the public as the food banks) phone in the number of clients they’ve served and discuss what items they still have a lot of. They don't get to choose what they get from the Food Source warehouse, but rather indicate if there are any categories they do not need this month. The warehouse supervisor now has the job of distributing the sorted goods on a fair share basis among the various food banks, social service agencies, the school breakfast and snack programs and Lindsay soup kitchen.
And then the whole cycle starts again. So the more the Food Source gets, the more each member agency gets.
Making your donations count
As a sorter, I now have a greater appreciation for what the Food Source needs when it asks for food, and I am often surprised at what members of the public donate when there is a food drive. I've sorted items that have obviously come from someone's spring-cleaning of their own pantry. It isn't rare for us to call out "This can is from 1999!" There is a tin in the office that if you pick it up, it rattles, and it isn't a can of nuts. That can was donated during a food drive.
The Food Source has to pay to throw these items away, which reduces the amount of food it can purchase when certain items are scarce. The rule of thumb when you are being generous to the food bank is simple: If you wouldn't serve it to your own family because you worry about the quality or the date, the food source can't use it either. If it is a week away from expiring, it will be expired by the time it is sorted and distributed to the various food banks.
What types of food the Food Source needs in any particular period changes. One month we may be low in canned meat, the next peanut butter. But donations of money are always needed. And those donations are used efficiently — for every dollar donated; six dollars’ worth of food is distributed!
I am enjoying my shifts as a sorter. I feel that I am giving something back to the community, and I find it interesting to learn about how things work. And it is nice to see the generosity of people's donations.
I now also feel good about donating because I know that there is a direct link from the item I donate to a person who needs it, with a little quality control in the middle.
How many charities do you feel that way about?
Mary Sullivan