Point us to the check-out counter

Even after the handful of times we've helped the Multnomah County Library, we hadn't heard about the "It's in the Bag" program. These are bags of materials organized around a central theme and including a curriculum guide. The bags are available for check out and help educators, day care providers and parents get a little more interactive with their library materials! We covered books with plastic to prepare them for their trips into homes and classrooms. Some of our favorites (or I should say Shannon's favorites): Llama llama red pajama by Anna Dewdney and Fancy Nancy by Jane O'connor and Robin Preiss Glasser. Happy reading, kids!

Food Bank Pros

By now, Return Serve is completely at home at the Oregon Food Bank. Six of us went back to our favorite stomping grounds on May 20. Whatever it is about them, the Food Bank repack nights bring the people out, every time! We were in one of the back rooms of the warehouse this time, sorting reject food items donated from grocery stores. After quick checks for damages that would impact safety, the good food was sent down the conveyor belt and into boxes for shipping to smaller food pantries.

I'm not sure if you caught the significance of that previous sentence.... in our wonderful volunteering journey, we have finally reached the moment when we got to interact with a motorized conveyor belt. It's a Lucy and Ethel landmark, and we're excited to have reached it and had just about as much fun with it as you might think we did.

Here's to not stopping the fun or the work until no more food goes to waste...