Stuff That Sticks

Before I dive into this week’s task, I’ve reflected more on what I’ve been calling “The Retirement Project” and decided that I’m actually going to call this crazy endeavor the “Stuff that Sticks” project instead. Because that’s basically what I’m doing – throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what sticks vs what doesn’t. What do I want to incorporate into my post-working life vs “chalk it up to experience” and move on? I may become more systematic and scientific in my approach to trying out new stuff as I go along but, for now, I shall commit myself into the impartial ceramic Paws of Rod, and see what fate delivers me.

For those of you just joining me – firstly, welcome! (you’ve got some catching up to do). Last week we met the Rabbit of Destiny (aka Rod) for the first time and ManpanionTM drew out a slip of paper with my first week’s Sh*t or Stick task on it. It read “volunteer for a day at a local food pantry”. So here’s how I spent my week.

I started off with a simple Google search “food pantries near me” and it wasn’t long before I came across the Feeding America website. https://www.feedingamerica.org/ As it so happens, September is Hunger Action Month, so Rod made a timely choice for me for my very first task (are we sure Rod isn’t sentient?). Feeding America is the largest charity working to end hunger in the United States. They partner with food banks, food pantries, and local food programs to bring food to people facing hunger and advocate for policies that create long-term solutions to hunger. The stats on their website are truly sobering in terms of the numbers of people in the US facing food insecurity – a staggering 1 in 8 people face hunger and 1 in 6 children. Or to put it another way, over 38 MILLION people are facing hunger – and of them 11 MILLION are children. That’s a lot of people, people.

What is food insecurity? Its defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) “as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. It is important to know that though hunger and food insecurity are closely related, they are distinct concepts. Hunger refers to a personal, physical sensation of discomfort, while food insecurity refers to a lack of available financial resources for food at the household level”. Extensive research reveals food insecurity is a complex problem. Many people do not have the resources to meet their basic needs, challenges which increase a family’s risk of food insecurity. Though food insecurity is closely related to poverty, not all people living below the poverty line experience food insecurity and people living above the poverty line can experience food insecurity.

There are even more depressing statistics to be found once you start digging further into some of the disparities that exist between different communities and geographies – I spent some time reading through Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap report https://www.feedingamerica.org/sites/default/files/2022-08/Map%20the%20Meal%20Gap%202022%20Report.pdf which, for the first time this year examined differences in local food insecurity rates by race and ethnicity. Here are some of the top key findings from that report:

1. 100% of counties and congressional districts are home to people facing hunger
2. Food insecurity among Black or Latino individuals is higher than white individuals in 99% of counties
3. County food insecurity varies by as much as 45 percentage points within some racial/ethnic groups
4. Child food insecurity rates are higher than 40% in some counties
5. 1 in 3 people facing hunger are unlikely to qualify for SNAP
6. 8 out of 10 high food insecurity counties are in the South
7. 9 out of 10 high food insecurity counties are rural

Reading through the scale of the problem, it was difficult not to feel overwhelmed or hopeless – particularly as it is such a complex issue with no easy fix. I was also acutely aware of the privileged bubble from which I was reading about the problem, knowing that I will never face anything like that in my life. I was also very conscious that – as I’m reading about millions of people who don’t have enough to eat – I’m spending hundreds of dollars a month on gym fees and memberships to actively lose weight. Gives you a different sense of perspective.

But – despite my feeling almost embarrassed by the lack of direct experience I would ever have with involuntary hunger – I figured the act of my educating myself a bit more about the issue and volunteering my time was better than simply closing my laptop and doing nothing. A lot better. Even though my act of service feels like a tiny drop in the ocean, organizations like Feeding America are almost entirely dependent on donations of money and time – so I would be participating in something that was meaningful and making a difference in people’s lives.

My next action was to look for opportunities to volunteer closer to home. It didn’t take long to find the Greater Chicago Food depository -a member of the Feeding America network. https://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/about/ I’d not heard about the organization before (perhaps not surprisingly, what with living in my bubble and all…) but what did surprise me was learning that they are not just a food pantry but that they also have as much focus on education on public benefits and job training programs. The work they do really is trying to tackle some of the underlying causes of food insecurity and help lift people out of poverty. They are a huge organization and act as the hub for a network of more than 700 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other programs. These programs provide food – and hope – where it’s most needed.

It was super easy to sign up to volunteer. The website was extremely professional, friendly and well-organized. The next available time slot for me to sign up was a Thursday morning session – a REPACK volunteering opportunity at their giant warehouse, just off I-55. I did feel a little nervous signing up as I didn’t know what to expect – I know this sounds a bit daft, but I felt self-conscious and guilty about my privilege and whether I would be outed as an interloper (“get out of here, you rich person!). Looking back now, it was a completely irrational fear as the experience was a really positive one – but it was an interesting observation as to how putting yourself into closer proximity to that inequality gap can really make one feel uncomfortable.

Anyway, it was a relatively short as-the-crow-flies drive from home – although the traffic was an absolute beyatch so what should have been a 20min drive took me closer to 45mins. I hate being late and – given I’d received instructions to turn up 15mins ahead of the 9am start time for orientation – my arriving at 8.59am already had me in a state of mild anxiety!! Fortunately I managed to find a parking spot pretty easily, so parked up and quickly made my way to the reception area. First impressions were how clean, light and modern the building was – and how completely non-depressing it felt! So, despite the grimness of all those food insecurity statistics I’d been reading over the last couple of days, here I was being greeted by a friendly lady at the reception desk and then directed to another cheerful, open locker area to be checked-in by another welcoming member of staff. They were not cross I was almost late – and I wasn’t the last to arrive, complaining about the traffic either, so I suspect its a fairly common occurrence.

After checking me in, I made my way to a big auditorium- think giant school-gym type room where the rest of the volunteers were already gathered for a briefing from Luis, another member of staff. There were probably about 40 people there – all different ages and flavors. Luis was describing what was to be our task for the morning – we were to be repacking oranges. They had received a large donation of oranges in big crates, so we were to sort through them, chucking out the really skanky ones and bagging up the rest into little bags for individual distribution. He asked for volunteers for a couple of specific tasks (3-4 people to move the fruit crates off the palettes, 3-4 people to make the little fruit bags, 3-4 people to make the cardboard boxes etc) and the rest of us would be at tables of 4 people each, to sort through and repack the fruit. Before we headed off into the warehouse, we all had to wash our hands and get suited up in hairnets, plastic aprons and gloves (we’d also been instructed to come dressed in long pants(!), closed shoes and a shirt that covered the shoulders). I deffo wanted to get hands-on with the oranges, so soon found myself at a table with my 3 co-volunteers for the morning – Miguel, Martin and Omar.

Miguel and Martin were long-standing volunteers so this was not their first rodeo. Both were retired/semi-retired and Miguel in particular was a very regular volunteer, coming 2-3 times a week to keep himself busy and occupied in his retirement. He used to work for a large multi-national corporation and Martin was semi-retired from an global accountancy firm. Omar was the youngest at the table and he was there with a bunch of work colleagues from a certain nearby medical device company (!) performing a day of service for the company. (I’d done something similar when I worked at Shire – my task, though, was painting a school classroom). So right there, my fears of being outed as a Professional With No Right to Be Here seemed somewhat silly – and for 3/4 of us to be retired/semi-retired – it was “OK – maybe this is where my tribe hangs out”.

Long story short, it was a really enjoyable couple of hours. Miguel showed me a few tricks of the trade in how to most efficiently bag my oranges and twizzle the bag so to make tying it up easier, so I’ve now got that skill down pat. (it’s harder than it looks to avoid getting the tips of your gloves entangled in the knot!) He also described some of the other tasks you can get assigned (you never actually know until the day what it is you’ll be doing) so I was grateful it wasn’t an Onion Repack (he said those can get kinda gross and squishy) or a Bread repack (I love all forms of Bread Products, so that would be a solid 2hrs of olfactory torture!). It was really interesting to chat to both of them, learn more about them and just enjoy the simple pleasure of meeting someone new. I know I can tend to be a bit insular sometimes – so with each of my Will It Stick? projects, I’m definitely looking for an aspect of socialization and community. I think that’s one of the things I will miss the most about not working – feeling part of a team. That need for human connection is a fundamental one – and has also been shown to be really important for a long and healthy life – so its something I am paying attention to.

We worked from just after 9am until about 11.30am, when it was time to finish up, wipe down and clean the tables – and wait to hear the final tally from Luis as to just how much we’d collectively managed to repack. They were impressive stats! Between all of us, we’d repacked 9,268lbs of oranges or 7224 meals (if you’re counting meals in Orange Units, I guess) – or that, individually, we packed the equivalent of 183 meals each. Not too shabby for a morning’s work! I said goodbye to my new friends and headed back to my car to drive into the city for the weekend.

So… what did I learn from this week’s experience? I found that I liked having to set my alarm (for the first time in 5 weeks) for something I needed to get up early for. I liked having a specific appointment set for an allotted time. So… some structure to my day, rather than the “hmmm… what shall I do today?” conundrum. This is an entirely predictable insight, given I’ve spent the last 30yrs working, with each day (and some weekends) being highly scheduled. Its amazing how many times I still glance at the clock each day. Its going to take a while before that need to obsess over the time (or to assigning specific times to doing certain things (“I’ll go grocery shopping at 3pm” vs “I’ll go sometime today”) will relax its hold on my psyche!

Additional learnings: it felt good to do something new and put myself out there. I met some really nice people and it felt great to be part of a team, even for just a short period of time, working together to get something done. What made this different was that – for the first time – it was purely voluntary. I wasn’t there as part of my job or that I was being paid to be there – I was there simply out of a desire to contribute to a worthwhile cause. And that felt really nice.

So… to wrap up this week’s project and answer the question for myself of “Sh*t or Stick?” – the answer is definitely STICK. My first taste of true volunteering really left me wanting to contribute more – so the Greater Chicago Food Depository definitely gets my Thumbs Up for going back in the future and making this a regular part of my Retirement Life rotation. One last thought – if this has at all inspired you and you’ve never done anything like this before either, then sign up! Do it!! It’s a teeny tiny contribution – but like those oranges, they all stack up.

COMING UP….. what does Rod have in store for me for Week 2? Tune in on Sunday to find out….