down in the dumps...literally.

yesterday, as many of you know, i became a head hauncho in the realm of warehouse life. my boss is officially 'on holiday' for the week while i remain at FareShare standing in shoes that are much too big for me. i'm holding my breath, crossing my fingers, and asking WWJD-- what would jeredine do?

perhaps i'm overreacting but to paraphrase my father, "if you prepare for the worst, at least you'll have a backup plan." it's unfair to say yesterday was a pearl harbour (aka a complete disaster) but it certainly wasn't smooth sailing (side note to the fam-- unless we're talking about that time we sailed back from the bahamas and woke up in cape canaveral.) i spent most of my day recovering from a rough morning. two volunteers were missing and marks & spencers kindly dropped off a huge, unexpected delivery.

ordinarily, i'd be thrilled. eight pallets of mouth watering stuffed salmon, spiced chicken legs, fruit salads, and lemon meringue pie. tempting enough to make me want to eat meat. except there was one problem: it was all out of date. all of it. everything except for 27 trays of yoghurt (about half a pallet) had to be binned.

and so, i spent my afternoon properly disposing this food because corporate bigwigs are coming to poke around the warehouse today and it would be inappropriate to flaunt their mistakes. i sound a bit bitter. i am- and with good reason, of course. yesterday was the 23rd. the majority of the food had a 'use by' date of friday, june 20th. if marks & spencers would have given us that shipment with thursday's delivery, we could have distributed it to all of our friday projects, thus avoiding yesterday's monstrosity of waste. instead, i threw away 60 pounds of chicken, 56 pounds of fish, 35 pies, 5 pounds of lamb, and 116 pounds of prepared fruit, dated the 18th. i felt like a penny waiting for change. and it gets worse- a 20 pound turkey, a size heavier than the bird most people carve on thanksgiving, went to the landfill because the packaging had been opened.

i was sick to my stomach, not to mention completely disgusted, for the first time in my 6+ weeks at FareShare, even though i realize that none of this is my fault. or is it?

at times, it's overwhelming to stand in the middle of a warehouse completely full of surplus food. this isn't second harvest. there are no schools, churches, or post offices holding canned (or 'tinned') food drives to supplement donations. everything in our possession has been diverted from going to the dump.

when did we, as a society, become so wasteful? i believe there's merit in the mantra 'if you build it they will buy it' but i also believe in the basic principles of economics. if we didn't demand it, they wouldn't supply it. who's to blame? what are the boundaries between corporate and personal responsibility? i struggle with this idea daily.

free autographs

you can find a blurb about me and my work in the fareshare newsletter. too bad you have to work here/donate lots of money/be a board member to see it.

so much for my 15 seconds of fame.

moving up in the world of food salvaging.

jeredine is going 'on holiday' in a week.
i'm taking over.
lord, help me.
heck, forget me-- send your prayers to FareShare! an entire week of being in charge. needless to say, i'm shadowing her every move, frantically noting every detail. and stressing, slightly. sometimes more than slightly (i am my mother's daughter, after all. no offense, mom.). so many things could go wrong. plus, we send a route out to southampton that week (a once a month delivery of mostly ambient product) which further complicates the situation. last month, the van broke down mid-route and we couldn't deliver the food.

this is the ultimate final exam.

learning from others' mistakes- thank you, FareShare

in a previous post, i mentioned that eventually i'd begin informal sit down 'chats' with members of the national team at FareShare. in an effort to minimize confusion, let me first preface this post with a little more information about FareShare's organizational structure. it's a national charity with 10 depots across england and scotland in places such as aberdeen, dundee, and bristol. i work in the london depot, which conveniently joins with FareShare headquarters, aka 'the national team'. these are the people that deal with fundraising, communications, expansion, etc. therefore, when i say i'm meeting with one of them, it's really not a big deal. i see them everyday but instead of asking about their weekend, i ask about their role at FareShare.

my first sit down was with jon, the man with a plan for corporate fundraising. he hopped on board in 2004 when FareShare split with Crisis*. yes, i got the details on FareShare's funding and how to entice corporate bigwigs but most importantly, i learned about FareShare's 'mistake.'

jon recounted an event from 2005 known as 'the christmas meal appeal', a drive that aimed to deliver 16,000 christmas meals to the disadvantaged people FareShare serves. it was ambitious, especially for a new charity that struggled (and continues to do so) with name recognition. in the end, they were successful. everyone cheered as they exceeded their goal and pats on the back were given to all.

however, to everyone's chagrin, the program received the ax. although the program was well implemented and received, FareShare had strayed from its mission statement: to redistribute surplus food. an organization that exclusively accepted food waste was now asking corporations to donate money to buy food. understandably, these mixed messages caused confusion for donors. factor in the amount of time staff diverted from their roles to focus on this goal and it just wasn't worth it. two months of securing donations and working out logistics for one day. what about the other 364? simply put, people need food everyday and not just on christmas.

this is the most important lesson i will take away from FareShare. yes, it was a great idea, but was it what the organizations truly needed? wouldn't the extra hours in the office be better spent securing new donations? there's still tonnes of food that goes to waste.

this lesson can also be applied universally. i'm guilty of the same crime. how many programs are put on at FSU, both by students and administration, that fail to see what the organization truly needs?

*FareShare first began as a grass roots organization operated by Crisis, the national homeless organization, in 1994. its conception literally consisted of driving a van to collect food from the back doors of grocery stores to redistribute to the homeless. FareShare operated as a mess with good intentions until it severed its ties with Crisis in 2003, placing a greater emphasis on the environment than ensuring that people experiencing homelessness receive the proper amount of fruits and veggies.

i'm back in the game

send praises to the diety of your choice- christmas (or an equally exciting holiday) has come early this year. i have for you a series of posts in a feeble attempt at atonement for my unforgivable crime of blog neglect. more to come. it's a case of so much to say, not enough time to type it.

enjoy.

"ideal as a part of a real british breakfast"

the topic of this week's english culture lesson is: black pudding.

two whole trays arrived from marks & spencers. fresh off the van, the brits called me over and asked if i had ever heard of it before.

i hadn't.

eagerly, they shifted their positions to get a good look at my face as paul (a shift coordinator at FareShare) explained that black pudding is, in fact, pork blood. 36% pork blood, to be percise. when combined with the remaining 64% of pork fat, oatmeal, and oak flakes, black pudding resembles sausage patties-fried in a skillet and served with eggs and toast.

i'll stick to my apples and yoghurt, thank you.

getting the hang of it.

hello hello hello
i hope everyone enjoyed their memorial day with a nice pool side BBQ and sunny weather. both were severely lacking over here in the UK. i did, however, have the day off thanks to 100+ years of bank holiday tradition. that's right, ladies and gents- bankers need a day off, too. way back when- before online banking and drive thru services- when banks closed, businesses closed. and because the english love tradition, everyone gets a day off for no other reason than to celebrate the end of spring. i kid you not. (the summer bank holiday isn't until august.)

let's talk about FareShare. i like it. a lot. warehouse life is interesting, to say the least. no two days are ever the same. i'm slowly assuming more responsibilities. currently, the operations manager is out on maternity leave meaning the london branch is down a team member. i'm filling her position a couple of days a week. i take inventory, call up each of the sites for food requests, allocate what we have, sort food with the volunteers, and make sure it all gets delivered. in the afternoons, i collect deliveries from sainsbury's and marks & spencer (two of the main grocery stores over here), brakes' produce, and occasionally, nestle, kraft, and unilever.

i've been out on the trucks twice now, which is quite the experience. i'm a glorified delivery man. the UPS of food. i like seeing and interacting with each of the different agencies, however brief it might be. the sites vary- soup kitchens, senior citizen hang outs, hostels for the homeless, centers for at-risk youth, drug rehab… yesterday, i helped deliver a route through the cambden borough. three of the locations were within a half a mile radius of the FSU study center. i'm a bit ashamed at how oblivious I was to all of these services throughout my study abroad experience.

i've got interviews with a couple of the national team members this week, which will add a new perspective to my work. i'm also trying to see if i can volunteer at another depot for a week- maybe head out to bristol or the midlands… we shall see.

until next time…

(ps- hi mom. please let me know if i have any spelling or grammar errors, aside from capitalization. that's asking for a miracle.)