Thursday 7/14 1-4pm:
For my first shift at Community Servings, I was put into logistical work of labeling bags. When it comes to the drivers delivering the food, they need to know the day, route and the contents inside the food bag. For example, I would have to label a bag Tuesday, Route 8, High Calories and Protein for the driver if the bag is to be delivered on Tuesday along Route 8 (which I think is to the North End area) and contains HCP foodstuff. I could only label around 300 bags that day because I double checked every bag I labeled. It is of utmost importance that the labels are correct because if the wrong food is delivered to the wrong person, it could lead to disastrous consequences such as a severe allergic response and could lead to the person being hospitalized or even death. Better be careful than sorry!
Friday 7/22 1-4pm:
I got to work inside the production side of the kitchen today where I spent around 100 minutes peeling carrots with another girl beside my workstation. I first had to chop off the end of the carrot and then peel it because people don’t like eating the end of carrots I’m told. Then for the rest of the 80 minutes, I went ahead to chop some celery. Since this is my first time working in the kitchen, I realized it was quite hot and it was important for me to take a break once every 90 minutes or so to have a drink of water to stay hydrated.
Thursday 7/28 1-4pm:
I got to work inside the production side of the kitchen again where I was marinating Tuna with an unknown sauce which contained some garlic and something else for 1 hour. Afterwards, I was chopping up an unknown fruit for around 1 hours. I had no idea what it was since it had its skin peeled off and I didn’t ask. One of the hired kitchen staff showed me a fast way of cutting it with a knife which I found useful. For the last 1 hour, I went to chop up some celery again, which was nice since that unknown fruit was hard to cut and I had small blisters from doing it.
Thursday 8/4 1-4pm:
Today I was also inside the production side of the kitchen chopping up eggplants for around 90 minutes. Coincidentally, I was working with Ruihan today! It was actually my first time doing a task with someone from the group and talking with her while doing the repetitive task helped pass the time which was great. Next, we went to chop up some chicken (or pork I can’t remember) and lastly we went to scoop out the seeds of melons and rub it with oil. After the volunteer shift was over, my group headed out of the Community Servings building to take a group photo for our e-portfolio and parted ways then.
Thursday 8/11 1-4pm:
This time, I got to work outside of the kitchen to do some labeling packages again. Nathan, one of the guys in charge of giving tasks to volunteers, saw me walking in and recognized that I labeled bags/packages before so he gave me this task. I’m surprised he even remembered me from an entire month ago which was nice. It turned out the bags that were supposed to be labeled weren’t prepared yet so I had to prepare the bags which was just putting a paper bag inside a bigger plastic bag and centering it properly. I proceeded to prepare around a hundred bags and then labeling them and repeating the process until my volunteer shift ended.
Reflection:
This experience with Community Servings has been enlightening. This was actually my first time working in a place that served food for more than 20 people. Before volunteering at Community Servings, I had only worked in restaurants where they serve at most 20 to 30 people at any given time. In a restaurant, I was able to be a lot more creative and independent when it comes to preparing entrees, deserts, main dishes and drinks etc. since customers usually order different things with an exception to a few popular dishes. I enjoyed working in such an environment where things were ever-changing and no single day was the same. My experience in working in restaurants shaped how I view the food preparation/cooking industry; fun, expressive and dynamic. However, I soon realized after my first few weeks at Community Servings that my experience working at a restaurant does not reflect the experiences of other food workers, especially those working in mass food production facilities. My time at Community Servings has taught me that to feed the masses, each worker is often assigned repetitive, and simple tasks that are the complete opposite of my experience as a chef in a restaurant. This led me to first have an unpleasant experience at Community Servings. However, as I experienced more, I started feeling that what I was doing was necessary no matter how mundane and boring the tasks may be. Somebody has to do it, somebody has to step up to do this boring and mundane job because it is important. This realization has made me far more grateful to the workers who work in places like Community Servings with facilities that may be even worse. I would like to thank Community Servings for providing me with this experience. While I may at times not enjoy the tasks given to me, I now completely understand the necessity and this experience has made me look at the food service industry in a new lens.