Packing Food and Meeting Neighbors

On Wednesday, March 11, City Cast Twin Cities had our very first Neighbors-only event, and it was a big success! We partnered with our friends at Second Harvest Heartland for a food packing session. In a matter of hours, our group packed 14,611 pounds and also built a personal connection with the awesome City Cast neighbors that joined us.

Second Harvest Heartland is the second-largest food bank in the country, and they do not play around when it comes to volunteering. Once you make your way into their headquarters, you promptly ditch your jewelry, wash your hands, and get a quick rundown on food safety and food standards. I made quick friends with our neighbor Beth, who approached her work with great care and efficiency. I also got to hang with neighbors Timna, Amy, Jocelyn, Gustave, and more. I butchered the names of the Iowa sports teams, mentioned that I went to preschool in the Washington D.C. area, and otherwise babbled before we got down to business. Small talk is easy!

Once we got going, our Executive Producer Anna Weggel snapped into action as the package taper who made sure that our apple boxes were between 38 and 39 pounds. Is that amount of apples in a bushel? NO, silly! A bushel is a measurement of volume that generally works out to about 48 pounds of apples.

Our creative producer, Adam, was freakishly speedy and focused throughout the apple packing process, but would occasionally mumble a couple of syllables of small talk as he robotically apple-packed his butt off. When I say that we packed 14,611 pounds of food, I’m quite confident that Adam packed at least 11,000 of those pounds.

The packing session ended with that sense of satisfaction that comes from hours of working with your hands and doing something for the greater good. I jumped into the cleanup session with enthusiasm, but was soon replaced by a seasoned volunteer who was a bit quicker with the scrubber. As we filed out of the headquarters, I felt the warmth of being in community with my City Cast Twin Cities family and knowing that we played a part in getting some food on the table for our neighbors. The impact is immediate – our Second Harvest Heartland chaperone told us that the food we packed is likely to be on a family’s table in a matter of two days.

I heartily recommend taking some time out of your schedule to volunteer at Second Harvest Heartland. There is always a need for financial donations to this organization and others, but there is a different level of satisfaction in giving time and effort to help those in need. And I also heartily recommend you become a Neighbor with City Cast Twin Cities. Listening to a podcast or reading a newsletter is wonderful, but there is a deeper level of satisfaction in being shoulder to shoulder with members of your community, having fun and doing good together. I hope you’ll join us as a City Cast Neighbor so we can do good and have fun together.