Atlanta Food Bank

Had a good time volunteering down at the Atlanta Food Bank. Left work at 4 pm riding with warehouse manager Jhannio driving and secretary Renee in back. I navigated downtown through a neighborhood from Northside Drive to Howell Mill. Both Jhannio and Renee also had/have kids at UGA. We arrived at La Fonda just before GM Eric, his son Jake, and coworker James. A coworker had been surprised I hadn’t picked a BBQ place to eat, but I don’t know of any on that part of town. Pulled into La Fonda and spied one right next door.

 

Jhannio Lopez was thrilled with our dining selection. La Fonda has Latin food: both Mexican and Cuban. He advised Eric that the Cuban steak sandwich was good, and Eric, Jhannio, and Renee all ordered it. Jake also ordered a Cuban sandwich. James ordered a burrito, which I hadn’t been thrilled with on my last trip to La Fonda. Instead I ordered chicken enchiladas, which had more sauce than the almost dry burrito. Everyone liked what they got, except maybe James and his burrito.

Traffic was bad the mile down to the Food Bank but we were good on time. After a short introduction we started our jobs. James moved boxes. These eight little girls from a small school in Dunwoody took the food items from the large cardboard boxes and put them onto the table, where Renee and I inspected for quality and expiration date. I found a couple of cans with 2008 dates, that I had to toss. Eric and Jake took the good food from us and sorted it into boxes: food, condiments, snacks, paper goods, misc. and placed them on the container. Jhannio moved boxes from the conveyor to the weighing station.

I messed around with the girls about the various songs that would play. They loved it when the theme from Friends came on. Four of the girls would climb down into the huge 48” x 48” x 48” cardboard boxes to dig out the foodstuffs down in the bottom of the box. I’d also try to keep Eric entertained. Not sure why the “Rice Hexagons” cereal wasn’t a big seller, though it must’ve been popular just down the road at Georgia Tech.

Our shift went by fast, as we kept busy feeding the food through the whole time. Snapped some pictures. My back ached a little due to the bending over, but not too bad. When the evening ended Eric shepherded us out of there quickly, and soon we were back on the road north. I seemed to catch every red light on the way home, plus there was night paving on Holcomb Bridge that slowed me down. Didn’t even pull out my laptop. Watched a little World Series before hitting the sack.  

 

For historical porpoises the Tuesday group included Rodney, Rachel, Tin, and Glenn. Wednesday AM group included the HR department, Brad, and Patricia. Today’s AM group included Angie, Matt, Beard, Buck, Sam, and Teresa. Today’s PM group included Zack, Rachel, and Lowell. Monday morning Steve, Kim, Billy, and Andrea had a more strenuous session working in a garden.

 

This afternoon Angie brought me back BBQ chicken and fries from Que, the restaurant down the street. It’s been a day full of one interruption after another. Coworker Brad had an emergency and had to take the afternoon off. He’s going to be off all next week on vacation.

 

Bad news comes in threes: (1) Frances, my coworker who recently retired after over 50 years with the company, isn’t doing too well. Her cancer has spread and she’s back in the hospital. Friends think she’s given up. (2) Ronald, another recently retired coworker, has cancer that’s spread to his brain. (3) I haven’t heard from my old boss Steve Apollo in a couple of years, but his 41 year old daughter Sarah passed away a few weeks ago, also from cancer. Her mother had died from cancer when she was little.

 

Fun Fact: by the start of the 1993 season, all 26 MLB teams had been beaten at least once by Doyle Alexander, Tommy John, Gaylord Perry, Nolan Ryan, Don Sutton, Scott Sanderson, Mike Torrez, Rick Wise & Goose Gossage.