a million for haiti

on saturday night i was sitting at home babysitting, watching food network and working on cutting out recipes for my super awesome recipe box. i randomly decided to check updates on twitter when what do i see?? king 5 news had tweeted that the salvation army needed volunteers to pack bags of food for victims of the haiti earthquake. their goal was to bag a million meals that weekend. bag food? i can do that! i quickly texted some friends i figured were likely to join me...and they luckily agreed! we decided to work the 6-8pm shift the next day.

the event was held at the convention center in seattle. we arrived and were given these super awesome plastic aprons and hairnets,then quickly ushered to the table where we would be bagging the food. we walked into the huge room where we would be working . there were 25 tables full of about 8 volunteers each all working towards one main goal, to bag a million meals for haitians-and we were about to join them.

the huge room:

(photo courtesy of Numana)

my view from the floor:


basically each table was its own mini production line. there were four boxes of food-protein powder that smelled like top ramen, rice, beans, and soy. all these ingredients were measured out and poured into a plastic bag. this bag was then measured to make sure it was the proper consistency. it then got vacuumed sealed, a label was placed on the front, and then it was boxed up!i was in charge of putting the protein powder and beans in the bag, pattie was a vacuum sealer, and estelle was a labeler.

our table of awesomeness(pattie stepped into my spot so i could take pictures):


lots of teamwork action going on here:


we were table 21 which just happens to be my favorite number:)


i tried to convince pattie to paint her bug like this but she wouldn't go for it. either way,i thought it was pretty cool:


when we had arrived at the convention center we were informed that 990,000 bags of food had been made, and we would probably reach our goal before 7 o'clock! i think we had picked the best time to volunteer!

yea! we made it to a million!!


not only did we make it past a million, but at 745ish we were only 5,000 meals away from making the most in the NATION! that's a pretty big feat, if you ask me. our table was out of food to bag so we weren't able to participate in that,but what an outstanding achievement!

even though my friends and i were a tiny fraction of helping bag a million meals for the victims of haiti, it's a good feeling knowing that we helped. it's also amazing to think about how many people from our community came together for this one common goal...and achieved it!and then some! i'm really proud of us and definitely excited to find more ways to help out in my community.

if you are interested in giving back visit the Salvation Army website.