Second Harvest Heartland Service Center

What a fantastic organization. I have volunteered at Second Harvest on several occasions. In addition to being organized and easy to work with, they encourage fun. Volunteerism at Second Harvest typically involves labeling and packaging food for individual consumption. No matter what size group I have brought to this location, they always have enough work to keep us busy for 2+ hours. Yesterday we sorted through pallets full of potatoes and created five-pound bags for distribution to families in need. In a two-hour span, a team of 40 volunteers created enough packs to make nearly 7,000 meals. That is true impact. During the process, the Second Harvest team efficiently kept us in supply of the necessary products and played some entertaining music that made us forget we were trading desk jobs for manual labor. Exercise, fun, and community benefit all in one event! At the end of our volunteer event, the staff provided statistics to help us measure the impact of our time. They also explained their broad reach and how many lives Second Harvest touches on a regular basis. I am so thankful that organizations like this exist and that they truly do all possible to make life a bit better for those who are suffering. To be a part of it is both humbling and incredibly satisfying. Whether you have a group of corporate volunteers or are a retiree looking to spend some time helping others, Second Harvest is a great partner organization.

My eyes were opened yesterday, when our company decided to volunteer at Second Harvest Heartland Service Center for our annual employee event. I can't remember all the stats, but I do remember them saying one person in ten goes hungry in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. And to think how much I eat, how much we as a country/state/community waste food. They can make a dollar stretch, and with so many causes looking for money, this is one that really can help out a lot of people.We had about 30 people from our office, but there were two other companies volunteering. Most of us went into the 'clean room', where we donned our lunch lady hairnets and surgical gloves. We started bagging pasta, moved on to bag granola cereal, and finished with bagging rice. Some of our group as well as the other companies bagged potatoes.In our three hours of work, we roughly filled over 400 pounds of pasta, 500 pounds of cereal, and 800 pounds of rice. I think the potatoes were in the thousand-pound range. In all, we did enough work that would provide over 8,000 meals to families of four.As a company, we bonded, and I got to learn a bit more about some of my coworkers. It was a great team building event and while we had fun, this activity serves a greater good.I would do this again in a heartbeat and I highly recommend it to companies, groups of friends, or if you feel like you want to 'pay it forward'.Pictures say thousands of words. Just look at all these happy volunteers. It says it all. Hopefully they will get the August album up soon so you can see our picture.Second Harvest and the families who receive help from them are very grateful, too.www.2harvest.org/volunteerphotos

Our team at work planned a volunteer event at Second Harvest, I had heard from before that it kind of sucks dragging around potatoes and carrots, but this time was actually not too bad. It was actually a brain puzzle with every box for me.NBC KARE 11 had garnered a heck of a lot of food from donations from the previous week and it was our job to pack 30 pound boxes of food for food shelves.18 pounds of canned goods and 12 pounds of dry goods. After watching an orientation video, we were led to the back and washed our hands. Then off to packing. Half of the group sorted through all of the donated goods (For all the bad people in the world, it seems like there are a bunch of good people) They checked labels and expiration dates and threw them into two bins, dry and canned.My job was to make all this food fit into a banana box. Not an easy task. The first few boxes were tough to make fit, but I quickly came up with a way to play Tetris with all these food items. It became a game for me to fit all these items in each box, and I tried to fit as many items as possible in each box. 30 pounds each.I started sweating pretty quick, but it was rewarding work and after three hours I think I packed at least 40 boxes worth. I tried to treat every box like it was my own, and I would like to receive it. I tried to mix up all the different items so that there was a nice variety for the recipients.It was well run and the time went by pretty fast.

I needed to use this service because of two job layoffs in our family and I have got to tell you, it was one of the most humiliating and embarrassing experiences in my life. It was actually through a different agency however Second Harvest was the distributor. What is most offensive is that you must give them all your personal information right down to your children's names and Birthdates. Next you pick out a few items out of bins in which everything that was offered to you had expiration dates that were weeks and months past the current date. Also, the volunteers hovered over you like you were going to break their rules of only one expired item per bin. Then you were offered pre-packed grocery bags of food that had been packed for you. Next it is weighed and recorded so the Feds know that you and your children received x amount of pounds of food on that day. Then, when I got home and unpacked it, I was so shocked at how much perishable food had past due expiration dates. Now I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, and I know the rules regarding expiration dates but some of these expired items, especially dairy was long past being spoiled and if my family had eaten these things, we would all have gotten extremely ill. I literally was given a months worth of food and the Feds know the weight, but do they know how many of those pounds of food doled out to hungry people are actually inedible?

If you need a team event for your company, consider donating your time.