Block 1 Came, Saw, and Kicked Some Can

On October 20th, Block 1 spent the day volunteering at the Food Bank for New York. It began far too early on a rainy Friday morning, where the first of two shifts bravely traveled to a far off mysterious land we had only heard about in fairy tales and rap music - The Bronx. Once assembled, our motley crew compared Beer Blast hangover stories and their lack of sleep.

Our friendly hostess, Jessica Le gave us a briefing, and then cracked the whip. Adorned in our snazzy, limited edition, Citigroup-Food Bank t-shirts (available on eBay), we got a tour of the warehouse, were introduced to a giant 1500lb pumpkin, and then set upon our task for the day - repacking boxes with cans of garbanzo beans.

Like the Jordan era Chicago Bulls, our team gracefully jumped into position and owned the floor. Some cleaned "dirty"cans, others labeled and stuffed, while the rest made more boxes. Pallets of cans on one side of the room emptied, while pallets of packed boxes stacked up on the other end. "We took what we learned in Operations class, chucked it out the window, and created a great "supply chain," said a student preferring not to be named fearing the Wrath of Caldentey™.

As time flew by, the group bonded like Fixodent on dentures. We ran through 30-second life story drills, highlights of the year so far, and then things got a bit more…adventurous. "I rubbed him down good," stated a grinning Ruchi Gupta, who reiterated, "what goes on in the back room, stays in the back room."

A Hallmark moment was witnessed when Levent Egritag (from Turkey) was shown the "Made in Turkey" writing on the cans, and he then grew an ear-to-ear grin. Before we knew it, our shift was over, and it was time to look over the results. 3600lbs of garbanzo beans packed and ready for delivery (I also got a funny inside scoop on one of the companies that recruits on campus, but can't say what it is though). "You could say we did a tonne of work," added the oh-so-punny Jaison Lee.

Shift 1 was over, and shift 2 began to arrive. These guys actually got sleep Thursday night, and weren't willing to show any mercy to the garbanzos. "I got us lost and we took the wrong bus. I think the police might also be looking for us. Please don't put this in the article," said Joe Levine. Fearing for their lives, the group soldiered on and got into gear. 3700lbs was the unofficial count from shift 2, though an independent audit is needed to verify these suspicious, Enron-esque claims.

We had a few palette-loads worth of fun that day, and it's good to also see that we had great turnout for a terrific cause. The Food Bank supplies the food for over 250,000 meals a day for New Yorkers who otherwise would go hungry or not eat enough, including families with children, the elderly, teenagers, the homeless, the homebound, and low-income. We were able to repack a total of 7,316 pounds of food, which is enough to provide 5,627 meals for New Yorkers in need.

Thanks to everyone in Block 1 for helping out!