I completed my first week of work at Feed My Starving
Children! The first day was really
overwhelming with trying to take in and remember everything I was supposed
to. But it got less overwhelming each
day. All my coworkers are great people-
they have made me feel very welcomed and have been very helpful in teaching me
everything I need to learn.
I went over some human resource stuff with the site
supervisor, read some of the employee manual, watched some safety videos, and
took some safety quizzes. Most of the
time I spent observing the team leaders as they led groups of volunteers. I also did some food packing along with the
volunteers and I jumped in and helped the team leaders when help was needed and
I knew what I was doing.
I was amazed at just how different every group of volunteers
is and you never really know what to expect in a volunteer session. Just this week alone there were families,
middle school field trips, transition students, a high school tennis team,
church groups, 85 people from UPS (they are all about efficiency!), a 16th
birthday party, a Kiwanis club, Starbucks workers, college students, elderly
people, 5 year-olds, and volunteers who have been to Feed My Starving Children
more times than me.
This afternoon I did my first bit of leading. I led the clean up of the warehouse and I led
the group as they prayed over the food they had packed. I think it went pretty well. This is probably the easiest part to lead, so
it was good that I started with this one.
I’m a little worried about leading the other parts because there are
lots of instructions that I have to remember to give to the volunteers. I have a whole week to learn though, and of
course I’ll have the support of the other team leaders.
I think the coolest part of the week was today when we sent
off a shipping container (think of a semi-truck or train boxcar) of food to
Liberia. Once or twice a week we send
off a shipment of food to countries all around the world. The food goes from our warehouse on a truck
to a port then onto a ship and across the ocean, then through another port,
then on another truck probably over some not so great roads to get to the
organizations that Feed My Starving Children partner with on the ground to
distribute the food. It can take
anywhere from 2 weeks to a few months for a shipment to get where it’s going. With the long journey and the chaos and
uncertainty of the journey, the food can use all the divine protection it can
get. So, once the food was all loaded up
on the semi-truck, some of the staff members gathered to pray that God would
watch over and protect the food throughout its journey and that the food would
nourish all those who will eat the food.
Thus far I’m really enjoying working at Feed My Starving
Children. The staff and volunteers are
so passionate about what they are doing and it’s easy to catch that passion as
well as to spread it to others.
