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| G is for Giving back |
| Tuesday, April 08, 2014 |
Today morning was spent at a Food Bank volunteering.
It has been a while since I did any volunteering. Since now my schedule allows me to have free mornings, I took this opportunity to pick this slot to do something worthwhile.
I reached the Food Center at 9, got the formalities done and waited for the rest of the group to arrive by 930. I have only done these as a team, or with some known people. This time I didnt know who else was coming. It was interesting to note how comfortable I was striking conversations with others.
930 we were given instructions on how to identify a bad apple and what we had to do. There were huge cartons of apples. These were apples that were discarded by harvesters because grocery stores only accept perfect apples in perfect sizes. I felt bad for the apples, I know it sounds crazy. We were to pick the ones that would still be edible in the next two days, and put them in 25lbs boxes, weigh them and stack them. The discarded apples would be fed to cattle, so nothing goes waste.
It was two hours of plain manual work, eventually got a back ache due to all the bending and carrying 25lb boxes. But to know that these apples would eventually reach to those in need of food, felt good. A miniscule way of helping.
What struck me was one of the messages in the place. You might think, if you are in a reasonably good standing like me, and others working, owning a home, earning well, that you might not need such help. This person in his sixties had an EE degree, worked in Silicon Valley in a tech company, got laid off after 30 years of experience, in 2003, coincidentally the year I graduated and struggled to find job, so it hit me even more, and found himself looking to the food bank to provide his family. It scared me.
While it is good that such orgnanizations exist, it is very important that we keep ourselves marketable and employable.
So anyway this was a good way of giving back to the community, in whatever small way possible. Hope to do more of this this year.
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posted by SK @ 10:30 PM  |
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| 3 Comments: |
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Loved this post! giving back is very close to my heart. And it need not be formal volunteering - even helping out friends and neighbors by making small sacrifices of your own, providing a listening ear to someone who calls out of the blue, etc etc - every small effort counts.
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What a great reminder of how good it feels to give to the community.
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Shachi,
Yes agree! :--)
Stephanie,
yes thanks!
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Loved this post! giving back is very close to my heart. And it need not be formal volunteering - even helping out friends and neighbors by making small sacrifices of your own, providing a listening ear to someone who calls out of the blue, etc etc - every small effort counts.