Last week, my supervisors checked in with me about my goals for the Fellowship. Although my largest goal is to see the co-op succeed, one of the reasons I applied to this Fellowship was to learn more about non-profit organizations in general.  As a result, we decided that I would spend my remaining Tuesday mornings at the Food Hub packing bags for the Veggie Van.

The Veggie Van is a program that delivers low-cost, pre-packed bags of fresh produce to sites around Columbus that have limited access to grocery stores or other sources of fresh food. The bags contain 14 pounds of produce intended to provide kitchen staples for a week. At each site, Local Matters staff and volunteers conduct cooking demonstrations using contents of that week’s bag.  This initiative is one of Local Matters’ most successful programs, and fulfills the mission of expanding food access.

When I got to the Food Hub this morning, the place was buzzing with energy. There were about 15 people running around, with music playing in the background, cornmeal spilling all over the floor, and shouts of “we need more tomatoes over here!” and “where did the blueberries go?” echoing around the room. I jumped in on the action and started man-handling cabbages into grocery bags.

We had to pack over 500 bags this morning, and as is the case with any large operation, there were a couple roadblocks. About halfway through packing, we realized that we were short 41 heads of cabbage. Annie, the woman in charge, let out a little cry of panic and pulled out her phone. After a brief call to her distributor, she announced that the cabbages were on their way. I couldn’t believe that such a seemingly large problem had just been solved in a matter of ten seconds. At another point, we ran out of crates to pack the bags in. People mumbled and grumbled for a moment, but everyone quickly assembled some of the produce boxes to act as crates and the operation continued.

By the end of my shift at the Food Hub, I realized that there is oftentimes order within chaos. Walking into the space, it’s loud, there’s food strewn everywhere, and people are working a mile a minute. However, the operation is streamlined and a tremendous amount of work gets done in a very short time. I like to think that’s what the co-op project is like; from an outsider’s perspective, we still don’t have a space secured, our business plan isn’t finalized, and we haven’t put together our marketing material. Even so, we are working tirelessly and there are plans in place to get everything done. I simply have to do my part and trust that there’s direction within the larger, messy scheme of things.