Day 1

The Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center is a small area filled with people, bustling from table to table with food everywhere. As I stepped through those doors, I was immediately greeted by a friendly, yet harried group of people, whose hands never once stopped moving as they looked up to see who was coming in. After that brief second, the head of the volunteer services, Carol, came up to me as I stood awkwardly in the door. She asked for my name and then her bright eyes lit up in recognition as I told her, and almost immediately I was at a place at a table, hurriedly packing in food to keep up with the efficient flow of things. After about ten minutes of me frantically trying to keep the line moving, Carol announced,” Find partners! You need two people for this next job!” As I looked around, a lady came up to me and began talking to me, asking if it was my first time here and if I liked it. We got into a debate about Pine Point (her son had gone there) and before long, I told her I didn’t have a partner yet. Instantly, she called over this guy named Chris who had apparently been working there since he was in middle school. He introduced himself and we talked and before long I asked him to be my partner. Being the nice (yet cynical) guy he is, he agreed, and before long he was holding a box and we were waling in a line through the tables as I grabbed on can at each station. Gravy, peas, corn, fruit, stuffing, carrots…the list goes on and we made several rotations, packing in more and more food into boxes until one entire wall was covered by them. The other volunteers were all very friendly and kind and even though it was my first day, I felt like I had been there forever. I can’t wait to go back and help more people!