"You two are a mess."

The past couple of days have been full of cans, boxes, and lots of laughter. I'll begin with yesterday.

Holli scheduled Alex and me to deliver and pick up a few barrels at three different locations, all in Mason. Although Alex is still on crutches, she served as the "rear view mirror" for the drive, and was still able to help unload the heavy barrels of food up to me in the truck, just like we did during our last food drive pick up together.

Our first stop was to Security National, near Cintas in Mason. We've been there before, but that didn't stop me from getting a little turned around and driving over a couple of curbs in the process. We unloaded 4 barrels for their food drive, and went on our way.

Our next stop was to Siemens Motion Control Industry. Alex and I remember delivering the barrels to this location a few weeks ago, so it was cool to come full circle and pick up their food. The people there were very excited to help load the food into the truck, all 510 pounds worth! They did a great job.
Our next and final stop was to the HiTek Manufacturing plant in Mason. The workers here pooled their money, then went out and bought food in bulk with the funds. They were able to buy quite a bit of food, mostly cans (which, again, are very heavy in bulk). I don't have any pictures, but Alex does on her blog. Somehow Alex and I were able to get 464 pounds of food out of their barrels and into our truck. This factory has about another month left on their food drive, and we're excited to see how much food they end up bringing in.

And that brings us to today. Gus was already reserved for senior food box deliveries, so Holli was planning to take the little pick-up truck to collect donations and deliver a couple of barrels. Because it's a stick shift (and because Alex and I have no experience driving a vehicle like that), Holli drove and I rode along to help. Our first stop was at Australian Sands Tanning Resort, here in Fairfield.They filled one barrel, and it was quite a lot of weight--251 pounds. Holli and I wheeled the barrel out to the truck, unloaded its content into boxes (which were easier for us to lift into the truck bed), lifted the half-empty barrel into the truck, and secured everything with some strategically placed straps.

Our next stop was at the Richard Allen Academy in Hamilton. It's a little private school that I called, hoping they would do a two-week food drive and collect a couple hundred pounds of food. Well, they collected a couple hundred pounds of food--and then some. They had collected 752 pounds of food, and they aren't even finished with the food drive! The kids have really gotten into it, which might be due partly to an ice cream party incentive for the class that brings in the most food. There are the leading classes, as posted in the school's foyer:

Also in the foyer were two full barrels, 2 full boxes, and about a dozen cases of canned and boxed food that some generous kid or teacher had brought in. We struggled to wheel these two very full barrels outside to the truck, at which point one astute teacher jokingly commented, "You two are a mess!" She was right. We didn't have enough boxes to off-load the barrels, so we had to dump the contents of the first set of boxes back into the barrel we had collected from the tanning salon. We figured we'd deal with unloading that barrel later. So that freed up several boxes, but still not quite enough. We crammed food into the "backseat" of the truck, and into the crevasses in the truck bed. Somehow, we got it all loaded.

Our last stop was a barrel delivery to S.A.N.E. At first I thought this was the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program, with whom we work in the Rape Crisis Program. But no--this place is a supply company housed in a warehouse way back in this junkyard-like lot. Check it out:The company was having their biannual warehouse sale this weekend, so they decided to incorporate a food drive into the sale. They had requested two barrels for the food drive.

But here's the problem--after those first two pick ups today, we had 3 half-full/full barrels in the back of the truck, but no empty ones. So when we arrived, Holli and I just dumped out the contents of the two half-empty barrels from the school into the truck bed. We figured, "what the hay?" Problem solved. We delivered the barrels, scoped out the sale, then hit the road. So here is what our truck looked like after two food drive pick ups and a delivery:Upon arriving back at Shared Harvest, we had to unload all of this loose food by hand. We scooped the cans into boxes, loaded them onto some wheels, and then recruited a little help from Gary and the forklift in unloading the full and heavy barrel from the tanning salon.

I won't lie. It was a LOT of work. Holli and I commented that no where else would all of this food have been handled so personally as it was with us! We did the best we could with what we had--which just so happened to be a little green pickup truck (who I have not yet named) and a few empty boxes.

After the [mis]adventures with the pickup today, I have to admit--I miss Gus!