Keeping it out of the dumpster

Whole Earth Review, Spring, 1994 by Joseph McConnell

LATE AFTERNOON, OUR LAST drop-off. We're taking five or six hundred pounds of miscellaneous groceries out to a low-income housing project. One resident has volunteered to run the distribution, we pile the food in her kitchen and living room, and the neighbors come with bags. We unload the truck, record the volume of food we brought, and start to drive out. On this run, my partner is the director; suddenly she points and says, "Oh God, why don't we have a camera?" Three little kids -- five, six, seven years old and perfectly selected for ethnic diversity -- are skipping gaily down the sidewalk, each with a shopping bag, waving to us as we drive away in our big bright van with the orange carrots painted on the side.

Hours later, I'm still grinning.

Resources

Foodchain (The Association of Prepared and Perishable Food Rescue Programs): Christina Martin, Executive Director. 970 Jefferson Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30318; 800/845-3008.

Food Research and Action Center (An Anti-Hunger Research Organization): 1875 Connecticut Avenue NW, #540, Washington, DC 20009; 2021986-2200.