New York Times

The day has finally arrived!

Jason DeParle, the New York Times reporter who visited us at Shared Harvest so many weeks ago, has published his first two of three articles regarding hunger.

Article 1
Article 2

The second article focuses on Southwest Ohio and includes a quote from Tina!

The third and final installment should be coming soon. I'll keep you posted.

Right now it's 9:00, and in about a half hour Kaitlyn and I will be driving to the city of Hamilton for a six-hour long regional VISTA meeting. Immediately after that, I'll be going to my very first physical therapy session. As I spent most of my extended weekend recuperating from the severe ankle pain Black Friday caused, I am not looking forward to irritating the sprain any more than I already have. Wish me luck!

I'm alive!

6: The number of days since my last blog post.

I know I haven't been blogging lately, but to be honest there wasn't very much going on! My last two trainings were canceled because so few people signed up. I wasn't able to do much or go anywhere because of my ankle, so I was mostly sitting in the office making phone calls and staring blankly at spreadsheets.

But things have been picking up lately, and now I feel like I have a ton of stuff to say! I'll start with the best news ever--I no longer need my crutches! I went to the doctor this morning and he said I could start weaning off the crutches. Which means I can walk around, but keep the crutches close by. I managed to fit my foot with the cast in my gym shoe, but not without effort. I had to wrap the foot/ankle in gauze, then put on a small sock, then put on the air cast as high up as it will go, then I had to untie my shoe and stretch it out as much as I could. So I am wearing two shoes for the first time in almost a month.

The doc also said I could shop on Black Friday, so I am a happy girl.

Moving on, yesterday was a crazy busy day. Kaitlyn and I were out doing food drive stuff all morning and all afternoon. Our first stop was to Springboro Area Small Business Network. Kaitlyn had packed her new GPS, General Paulette, but she couldn't find the address in her system. So we had to rely on Map Quest.

The address we eventually found after driving back and forth a few times was a quaint yellow house in the middle of nowhere. We were extremely confused, so we called our contact person. The call went a little something like this:

Me: Hi, this is Alex Moning from Shared Harvest Foodbank, and we're not really sure--

Her: Oh, is that you in my driveway?

Me: ...Is it the yellow house?

Her: Yep!

Me: Well then, yes we are.

She helped Kaitlyn carry the bags out to the car (they hadn't requested a barrel). I was still on crutches, so I put a bag of paper towels around my arm. Yay, I helped! They collected 180 pounds of food!

Next we went to Summit Academy School. where the kids were more than happy to help carry the bags (and barrels!) out to Gus.

We still had bags in the truck from our first stop, so we just had them put the bags on the ground. Here they are proudly standing next to their donations:

And here they are goofily standing next to their donations:

They would have been happy to help us out some more, but Kaitlyn and I had some organizing to do! We sorted all of the food from Springboro into boxes, then constructed several more boxes so we had a place to put the overflow food from Summit Academy. We were in that parking lot for a lonnnng time. They had collected 655 pounds of food. Wow!

Our last stop was for Catnip N Carrots (I have no idea). We were a little worried, because Gus was getting filled up fast and this place had 9 barrels. Fortunately, we were able to put our Tetris skills to use. Most of the barrels were a little less than half full, so we just combined them and stacked them and managed to make it work. They collected 370 pounds of food!

Below you'll see a picture of Kaitlyn with a very full Gus, and a picture of Kaitlyn filling Gus with gasoline. See any similarities?

Anyway, after a very quick stop to the PNC bank in Tri-County, we went to Sacred Heart Elementary for their pick-up. We didn't think it would take too long, because they only had three barrels. We didn't realize how much overflow there would be (see below).

Uh-oh.

This pick-up took many, many hours to complete. Kaitlyn wheeled out the three barrels while I constructed more boxes (my hands are really, really dry). We emptied the barrels into the boxes until we could lift the barrels into Gus, then we emptied the boxes back into the barrels. We really need a ramp on that truck.

That took a long time to do. When we finished that, we went into the church with our boxes and began filling them with the overflow food. To make it all fit better, we had to empty each plastic before putting the food into the boxes.

Needless to say, this took FOREVER. I was at least able to sit down while filling up boxes (remember, I was still on crutches at this point), then Kaitlyn would wheel them out to the truck and load them in.

Finally -FINALLY- we had packed all of the food and loaded all of the boxes. They ended up collecting 1166 pounds of food. Woohoo!

See me below holding my tape dispenser in a very James Bond-esque manner.

As you can see, Gus was very full at this point and we still had one more pick-up to do. But when we got to PetLand, they hadn't collected any food at all, and the manager said that they wanted to hold on to the barrel for another week or so to see what they could do.

That was a relief. We might have had to stick the barrel in the front seat with us. So after a quick look at the puppies, we went back to a dark and almost-empty Shared Harvest and got out of there at about 4:30.

Well that very, very long blog post ought to make up for my abandonment over the past week or so.

Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S. Be careful on Black Friday--last year someone ran over my mom with a shopping cart.

No Regrets

39: The number of miles in my car before I run out of gas (But don't tell my dad)

Yes, I made the mistake of driving to Vandalia today without filling up my gas tank. But it could have been worse. And I'm going straight to Kroger after work.

Anyway, I went to Vandalia for this Medicare conference/resource fair at the Dayton Airport Hotel. Have you ever hobbled across a large parking lot in the rain on crutches carrying a laptop and a large tote bag? It is not a pleasant experience.

I finally made it inside and found the room where all the other vendors were. Meredith had called some people in Columbus to reserve our spot, but I guess they never got around to calling them? It worked out, though, because they had one extra table.

Normally I would have brought a tri-fold with me, as well as a bowl of candy, but it was hard enough getting my bag and laptop in the door. So my booth was a little lame. Still, I had my laptop for Quick Checks and Site Finders, and tons of flyers about the Benefit Bank to give away. Turns out I didn't really need them. There were only about 30-35 people there, and many of them didn't even come into the resource room. Set up was at 8 a.m., people started trickling in at 8:30, there was a presentation in another room from 9-10, and a few individuals came back in on their way out. So for most of the day, the resource room looked like this:

But of course, it was not a waste of time. It never is.

Although I didn't do any Quick Checks for anyone, I did do a site locator for a woman whose son has been struggling. A lot of people at least picked up some flyers and pamphlets. And when I told one woman what the Benefit Bank was, she was so excited that she wasted no time filling out a "Yes card" so she can get started on becoming a site.

The best news of all -- there just so happened to be a Friendly's two miles away from the Dayton Airport Hotel. So at 11 a.m. I drove over there, went straight for the counter and asked if I could get food to go.

"You sure can! You want to order breakfast?"

"No...don't judge me, but I just want ice cream."

That's right, I wasn't kidding when I said I'd just skip the lunch and go straight for the sundae the next time I found a Friendly's. She even helped me carry it to my car.

And I have no regrets.

Ode to Crutches (and Kaitlyn)

974: The number of pounds we (and by we I mean mostly Kaitlyn) delievered to Shared Harvest.

Something I realized on our food drive pick-ups yesterday: When you're on crutches, more people offer to help load the truck.

Our first job was to drop off four barrels to Security National, which happens to be located on Cintas Blvd. You may remember that street name from "The Adventures of Gus the Bus: The Missing Cintas Distribution Center." Same street, different building.

Determined not to be dead weight, I hobbled inside while Kaitlyn parked Gus so I could talk to the lady behind the counter and ask for some help carrying in the barrels. She quickly sent out two or three helpers, and we were done in no time!

By the way, Kaitlyn is a real gem. She drove the entire way, and handled all the barrels and boxes. I owe this girl big time.

Our next stop was a food drive pick-up from Siemans Motion Control to pick up two barrels as well as about ten boxes of food. I think these guys would have helped us out even if I weren't on crutches. They were really enthusiastic and more than happy to lift the boxes into Gus.



They ended up collecting 510 pounds of food. Woohoo!

Our final stop was at Hi-Tek Manufacturing Incorporated. Their food drive is still going on, but their barrels were getting really full. So we left the barrels there, but loaded up their many, many boxes into Gus. I was actually able to help out with this one using the system Kaitlyn and I created on our last food drive. Kaitlyn (and a few more volunteers) wheeled out the boxes on a dolly and got up into the truck, I handed her bags of food, and she loaded them into an empty barrel. So far, they have collected 464 pounds of food!

There was nowhere to turn Gus around once we were finished, so Kaitlyn had to back up into the grass a little to get out of there. First she had to move a random picnic table out of the way, though. We've learned our lesson about that. It was hilarious, in a deja vu kind of way.




Meredith suggested that I use the crutches even after my ankle is healed, so that people continue to sympathize and help us out. It worked out pretty well yesterday! Still, I will be incredibly happy when I'm able to take this air cast off and ditch the crutches. All it takes is physical therapy twice a week for four weeks.

...Yay.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Too many to count: The number of phone calls I've made today.


Remember lava lamps? The slow-moving, oddly-shaped blobs of wax that drift up and down in a tight clear container?


That is what my brain feels like right now.


Today has consisted of phone calls. Lots and lots of phone calls. Kaitlyn and I have been calling:

• Soon-to-be Benefit Bank sites who still need to turn in their site user agreements or attend pre-training orientation


• Potential food drive sites


• Benefit Bank sites to see if they want to hold tax clinics


• Benefit Bank sites who still have to renew their organizational agreement and site profile


• Potential Benefit Bank sites in each of our seven counties.

And we are calling all of these people every other day.

Needless to say, we leave a lot of voicemails. And on the rare occasion that someone actually returns our call, things can get a little confusing.


I have put together a little skit to give you an idea of a typical phone call.


**DRAMATIZATION**

Cell phone: Ring! Ring!

Me: This is Alex.

Caller: Hi, this is John Smith from NonProfit Anonymous! I'm returning a phone call.

Me: Oh, okay, great. Thanks for calling back. Let me just...find your file... so you're interested in becoming a Benefit Bank site?

Caller: No....we're already a site.

Me: Oh, okay. *opens another spreadsheet* So did you recently become a tax site?

Caller: No...we just do benefits.

Me: Oh, sorry. Um...is this about the food drive?

Caller: Food drive?

Me: Crap.

I know that it says "Dramatization" at the top...but it's really not. I have actually had that very phone call, minus the "crap" at the end.

Tomorrow we are out of the office for food drive stuff, so it'll be nice to be away from our spreadsheets and folders. Phone calls can be so exhausting.

Slow week

22.25: The number of comp time hours I have built up.

This is actually shaping up to be a pretty slow week.

TODAY: Aside from a few phone calls, I don't have much going on today. Kaitlyn and I were going to do a food drive drop-off this afternoon, but it's only one barrel and it's not far, so Kaitlyn is going to stick a barrel in the backseat of her car, and like ten banana boxes in her trunk. I sincerely hope she gets pictures of this.

TUESDAY: I'm taking a sick day tomorrow because I have several doctor's appointments to go to. I really hope they don't make me move my ankle around just yet.

WEDNESDAY: I originally had a training to do this day, but no one signed up so it was cancelled. Kaitlyn, however, still has her training in Dayton, so I might be a little lonely in the office.

THURSDAY: Kaitlyn and I have a few food drive tasks to take care of in the morning. I think I'm mostly going to be the rearview mirror. I can't do a lot of heavy lifting while leaning on crutches. I mean some, sure, but not a lot.

FRIDAY: Another blank column in my Google calendar.

So yes, a slow week. Prepare yourself for some truly dull blog posts.

Annoying/Fearless

1: The number of functional legs I have.

Well I went to the doctor last night and it turns out my ankle is indeed sprained. They wrapped it up in gauze, put me in an air cast, and instructed that I stay on crutches for "a few weeks." Okay, if I am able to sprain my ankle while standing still, what do they think is going to happen when they put me on stilts?

I have to do all these follow-up appointments and go through some physical therapy, so it's a long process. They also said that because I've sprained my ankle once, it's going to be easy to sprain it again because it's all stretched out.

So basically I just became annoying. I do not do well on crutches, so people have to open my doors and carry my bags.

On the bright side I am still able to drive. The air cast gives me enough mobility to go from gas to brake without a problem. And hopefully I'll be okay by Thanksgiving. Because I can't do Black Friday in crutches.

Kaitlyn and I were in Gus yesterday and we were talking about how much more assertive we've gotten since becoming VISTAs. I used to hate talking on the phone. Even to my friends. I would make other people order pizza. And now -- Well I'm still not crazy about the phone, but I can do it easily. The fear for that is gone. I also never thought I'd be driving around a truck as big as Gus, and now it's just like any other car. I don't even notice the size of it, really. And if someone had told me a year ago that I would be training people all day, I would have laughed (or curled up into the fetal position and hidden in a corner). And now those trainings are second nature!

Kaitlyn and I are very proud of ourselves. We're FEARLESS!

Betting on Barrels

1,606: The pounds of food Kaitlyn and I delivered to Shared Harvest today.

I used up some of my building comp time to take the day off yesterday. I was looking forward to sleeping in, watching bad TV, and playing with my cat Albert.

I ended up waking up at 7:30 in the morning, anyway. And while I did spend most of my day watching movies and doing jigsaw puzzles, it might have been safer to have just gone in to work. My doorbell rang in the middle of "Juno," so I pushed away my makeshift puzzle table and stood up only to fall at a really awkward angle. My legs had fallen asleep at some point during the movie and weren't functioning properly. I basically landed on the right side of my ankle.

I don't think it's broken, but it might be sprained or something. I can walk on it--I just have to do so carefully. Moving it to the side the tiniest bit is painful.

So I was a little worried about all of the food drive pick-ups Kaitlyn and I were scheduled to do today. I usually like picking up barrels from food drives--it gives us the warm and fuzzies to know that a struggling family is going to get that extra help. I just didn't know how helpful I was going to be on the day I can barely support the weight of my right leg, let alone hundreds of pounds of food.

Our first stop was Ohio Casualty Liberty Mutual in Fairfield. This place was awesome. Not only did they have six FULL barrels of food to contribute, they also had a loading dock that could lower itself to the height of Gus! They even offered to back Gus up to the dock and load the barrels. Fine with us!

I was more than happy to stand aside while they put the heavy barrels of food into Gus!

There was no more room in Gus after that excursion, so we drove back to Shared Harvest to empty and weigh the food. To make the day a little more interesting, Kaitlyn suggested we bet each other on how many pounds of food we had collected from Liberty Mutual Fairfield, without going over. It turned out that we had gotten 938 pounds of food (WOW!). I won the bet, so Kaitlyn had to drive to our next destination: Staples!

The guys from the warehouse help us get the barrels out of Gus

We didn't have any problems with Staples. They had eight barrels, but half of them were empty.

We did come up with a great system for loading the food into the truck, though. Gus doesn't have a ramp and we don't always have fancy machinery for easy lifting, so we have to get creative. We use the dolly to carry the full barrels out to the truck, then I take out the food and hand them up to Kaitlyn, who puts them into an empty (or almost empty) barrel that's already in the truck. When the barrel on the ground is light enough, we lift it into the truck and use that one to add food to for the next full barrel.

We were pretty proud of ourselves for coming up with that system! It all went very smoothly.

Staples had collected 246 pounds of food. I won that bet, too, so Kaitlyn had to give me two mini-Reeses Cups.

We had to drop the food off at Shared Harvest again, then after a quick lunch we went to our last destination: The Ohio Casualty Liberty Mutual office in Hamilton!

A lone barrel sits in front of Ohio Casualty Liberty Mutual

This place had done a fantastic job in their food drive, and they were really helpful in getting it all together. They had collected 422 pounds of food (I won that one, too, by the way, but that's neither here nor there). They took the dolly off our hands and brought down all of the barrels for us, and they were really excited about their food drive.

All in all, we brought back 1,606 pounds of food to Shared Harvest--amazing! My ankle hurts from walking on it all day, but I was able to find a few places to rest throughout the afternoon...