Thanks for the hippo!

Yesterday, Shared Harvest received a hippopotamus from the kids at the Fairfield Middle School.

Okay, not really, but they did receive 5555 pounds of food, which is about the weight of an adult hippo. (I bet you didn't know that! You're welcome.)

But I'm getting ahead of myself--let me begin at the beginning.

Last week, Holli told me we had a food drive pick-up at the Fairfield Middle School scheduled for Monday. She said that the kids had filled 10 barrels with a little overflow, so I was going to pick up with Mike, a truck driver at Shared Harvest. His truck is an actual semi truck (an International truck to be exact--I know you were wondering, Dad), complete with a gate lift to make our job WAY easier. I was looking forward to the adventure, but a little nervous about moving all of those barrels. Still, I thought, how hard could it be?


Famous last words.

Bright and early on Monday morning, we loaded up the semi with three dollies and a few boxes to catch the overflow food. Holli drove separately in her car and met us at the school around 8:40 A.M. We checked in at the office, then made our way to the library, where all of the food was collected. Now, I don't have a picture of what we saw when we walked in, but just close your eyes for a moment and picture this. (Er...I guess you can keep your eyes open so you can continue reading.) Sure enough, there were ten full barrels bunched together in the corner. But they were easily overshadowed by the mound of boxes surrounding them, as well as the wall of cans and boxes lining the top of one of the library's book shelves. This wasn't just a little overflow!

We definitely had our work cut out for us; we needed a strategy. First we needed to plan our exit route. What would be the most efficient way to get the food out of the school and into the truck? The library was very close to the front entrance, but there was just one problem: 3 little steps. There was no way we were going to hand carry all of the barrels and boxes up those steps. Fortunately, the other part of the school was accessible with ramps leading to other exits. The school even gave us two of their flat-bed carts, which allowed us to move even more food than with our two-wheel dollies. But as Mike put it, we had to travel a "country mile" to use those carts on the ramps. Any energy we saved by avoiding the steps was spent walking through the ENTIRE school to get to the truck. One well-placed ramp would have made a world of difference. (Okay, I feel a disability rights rant on accessibility coming on--I'll save it for another day.)

A couple hours later, Mike, Holli, and I were drenched in sweat, completely breathless, and in dire need of a drink of water. But we managed to get all of the food out of the building AND into the truck. Although the lift made our jobs 100 times easier, it wasn't necessarily easy to get the food onto the lift. It took a lot of maneuvering of our carts, and a lot of lifting to compensate for when the carts just couldn't be wheeled onto the lift, but we did it.Above is the lift in action. I tried to avoid riding on the lift, mostly because it reminded me of an amusement park ride (and I don't do well on amusement park rides).

When we got back to Shared Harvest, we still had to weigh all of this food. Can you guess how many palettes it took to transport 10 barrels and dozens of boxes? Let's count together!

One palette, ah ha ha!

Two palettes, ah ha ha!

Three palettes, ah ha ha!

Four palettes, ah ha ha!

Five palettes, ah ha ha!

Yes--it took 5 palettes to move all of that food. And if you recall, we ended up weighing 5555 pounds of food. It would seem the number of the day was: five! 5! Five! 5! Five!
(And I think that's my last Sesame Street reference. P.S. Happy birthday, Sesame Street!)

In any case, the kids (excuse me, tweens) and teachers at Fairfield Middle School are awesome! Of course, this sign says it all: