OATS!

Having visited the Oregon Food Bank four times now, we've learned that we can never know what to expect. Sometimes we're fishing recalled peanut butter out of donated items, sometimes we're sorting through soup, beans and cake mixes, sometimes there's Asian pears as far as the eye can see, and sometimes... there's oats. January 5th we arrived to find several 1,600 pound bags of donated oats needing our attention. As you can imagine, the oats needed to go into smaller family-sized bags. There were also a few boxes of turnips that needed similar treatment, but that's another story. We had the best time with the oats! Two heaping scoops of oats equaled two pounds, and there were scales on our table so we could verify that we were providing Oregon Food Bank quality with every bag. Hair nets, aprons, gloves and sleeve guards were required. Our assembly line had things down to a science. We finished our first 1,600 lb bag and made an impressive dent in a second before our visit ended. You can see by the photo, but all together the volunteers with both oats and turnips processed 10,076 pounds of food, which equates to 7,751 meals and (my favorite statistic) 121 meals per volunteer. It's amazing and wonderful that something as fun and satisfying as scooping oats with friends can actually be meaningful. We send those oats and turnips to those who need them most - with our best wishes!