And then we saw it. Forgotten Harvest stood out like a sun. The surrounding area was dirty and dull but Forgotten Harvest was very clean and neat. Once our class got inside we went right into a room with a long table and a lot of chairs. A man showed us a short video about what they do here and the number of people it affects. The video interviewed a couple of people that were receivers of Forgotten Harvest. It was sad to learn that a lot of kids only meals came from the school cafeteria and they were especially hungry on weekends. The CEO who started the volunteer industry told us of the hardships of being poor and the statistics of the amount of food given weekly. After the video, the man who showed us it told us that we were to split up into two groups and explained what our job was. My group was assigned to organize buckets of diced pepperoni into smaller four-pound plastic bags. For a while, I helped organize and refilled the buckets but after about an hour, our groups switched places and we were tasked with folding plastic bags for the people who were organizing the pepperoni. This took up another hour or so but it was enjoyable since we could talk as we worked. At the end of our time, the same man in the beginning who showed us the video told us that the work we did there fed six thousand people. Around three hours spent there and we gave six thousand people a meal to eat. It was amazing how much food we created with such a short amount of time. He gave us a tour afterword and showed us all the other food items that they shipped out to homeless shelters. By the time our tour ended they had already shipped out the diced pepperoni we had done. Later, he told us that Forgotten Harvest ran solely on volunteer efforts and donations.

I realized later that this experience reminded me that there are a lot more people out there that are willing to give their time but just don’t know a good place to do it. If everyone knew about an organization where they could contribute there would be no poverty.