'Twas 6 days before Christmas...

Yes, we corpsmembers certainly are counting down the days until Christmas! There have been so many projects at work that somehow involve wrapping paper, presents, huge lists of toys, Christmas dinners, little adorable red and green outfits, and heaps of cookies that it's hard to get the holidays off my mind. We've been working hard to make sure that everyone who comes to the Food Bank has a bit of a brighter outlook on the holidays. Today in the Del Paso Food Locker, we went through many, many pounds of food that had been gleaned from supermarket shelves. It's funny to see what sorts of products make it to the Food Locker. Tapioca pudding and fancy-pants imported Irish butter were two of the hot items today. There were boxes and boxes of each thing! As long as supplies held out, there was a bag each of dairy products, bread and pastries, dry goods, cans, and the lone vegetable to give to about the 150 people who came throug the line today. It varies from person to person, but some folks come to the window asking for food for their family of 2 adults and 5 kids. Regardless of how many groceries we give them or how many people they need to feed, they can still only come to the Food Bank once a month. It can seem rather daunting for some of these folks to feed everyone.

Most people that come to the Food Bank have jobs; the money that they make doesn't stretch for the duration of the month. Beginnings of the month are typically slower and more clients ulitize services towards the end of the month, say our project supervisors.

It's been very rewarding and very eye opening to work at the Food Bank during this time of the year. A few days ago, there was a rather bittersweet event in the Mother Baby program where I work that I thought would be worthwhile to share. A grandmother came into the program, a not so oldish lady, asking if we had anything for a newborn. She needed it all, from clothes to hats to coats to blankets to a bassinet. She told us that her granddaughter was born 4 days ago in nearby Davis, but she has temporary custody of the baby because the mom is in prison. She might be getting out soon, but apparently more and more time keeps getting added to her sentence. The baby's dad is in jail as well. Thankfully, the grandmom was there to take care of the baby because the father's family was completely unwilling to take care of this little girl. It was so nice to be able to help out this family (we helped them pick out a zillion little pink outfits) and they were really grateful for anything that we could give them. But at the same time, just thinking about the life that's in front of this little girl was hard. The odds are pretty much stacked against her, it seems. But being able to help the Food Bank offer assistance, whether it is in the form of clothes an diapers or educational classes and the beginnings of relationships with other people who are trying to better their lives, makes it possible to see the good and not get bogged down in the bad.

Getting into the swing of things

The third week of our project is off to a good start, with team Silver 6 working on a variety of projects. We're splitting our time between the Oak Park, Saca Center, and Del Paso locations of the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services. We're everywhere... working in the warehouse, wrapping Christmas presents, playing with little kids, tutoring adults, providing crowd control for middle schoolers... we're pretty much got it all covered. The project is a really quite a good one and I think that the variety that sometimes makes us feel like we can't focus on one thing for long enough will be sorely missed when we have a more focused project. Hammering nails into a wall might seem a little plain after this assignment.

A few non-Americorps things to report back about... I went and saw a fantastic concert this past Saturday. Evelynn Glennie is a profoundly-deaf percussionist who put on an amazing concert at UC Davis. A teammate and I splurged and bought the expensive tickets so we've have good seats near the stage and I'm really glad we paid the extra few bucks. She played some beautiful music on instruments ranging from clay flower pots to the marimba to wood blocks to a snare drum. Check out a little video clip of a song we saw performed at YouTube.

I'll be back in Maryland soon to spend Christmas with my family! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, friends and family alike, spending time sleeping in my own bed, and enjoying a little Maryland snow (I've got my fingers crossed!!).