TODAY I WAS "THE RICE LADY"...MARCH 03 2012.....

That is correct.  All morning I dipped rice.  Not cooked rice, raw rice.  Over and over again and again. 

Today was our community's I FED THE HUNGRY day.  Through the STOP HUNGER NOW organization.

Earlier this year the entire community, churches, organizations, private folks, worked, contributed, and raised enough money to  sponsor a Stop Hunger Now day.  Today was the day.

At 9 a.m. this morning there were 120 of us volunteers at our community center to  prepare bags of food, each bag would feed up to 6 people.  How can that be?  I know I wondered when I first got involved.

When I arrived there were huge bags of rice, bag of something called dried protein, dried vegetable flakes and small packages containing vitamins. 

There were work stations set up, divided into 4 categories.  Filling, weighing, sealing and packing.  This will be a thumb-nail version.

The filling station consisted of  a funnel on a stand, empty plastic bags, about the size of a quart plastic bag, a box of packaged vitamins, a very large container full of dried vegetable flakes, another large container filled with the protein stuff, and a final large container filled with raw rice.  I got the rice bin.

There were approximately 6 work stations per table, and about 4 tables in use.  There were around 5  of us folks at each work station.  It was done as a production line.  Open plastic bag and drop in vitamin packet, place bag under funnel, hold said bag in place, dropping the measure of vegetable flakes, then the measure of protein, and lastly the measure of rice.  Said bags were placed in a bin that held 6-8 filled bags.  Then a "runner"would take that bin to the weighing station, replacing it with an empty bin to be refilled.

The weighing station weighed each individual bag and adjusted the weight, either adding or removing some rice until it reached the proper weight.  Then the sealing station sealed each bag, tossing said bag to the boxers, who placed the food into large shipping boxes, taped them shut, and other runners loaded them onto the truck parked just outside the door.

We had a lot of runners, constantly refilling the protein containers, rice containers, bringing more packets of vitamins, bags, whatever we needed.  No one ever stopped. 

I was one of the rice dippers.  It only took a few minutes to get into the rhythm of the thing.  In 1 hour and 45 minutes we had filled, sealed and packed 26 thousand - that is right, 26 - and each bag would feed up to 6 people. 

The contents of the bag would be added to boiling water, with any spices or seasonings that the person receiving the food wanted to add, and after cooking there would be enough for 6 meals.

These meals are shipped all over the world, wherever there is a need.  The area receiving the food would take it to their schools.  Why the schools?  Because to receive the food, the parents had to take the children to school. Not only were we feeding the children, but teaching them at the same time, and many times the parents remained and began to learn basic reading and writing.

If I am not mistaken, it only costs 25 cents to fill a bag.  Our community raised enough money to fill 26,000 bags.

From 9 a.m. until 10 a.m. we signed in, saw a video about this, and were given the proper instructions as to what had to be done and how.  We began filling bags at 10 a.m., completed our job at 11:45 a.m.  We were then fed a simple lunch, and a group picture was taken of all of us together.

And so if you were wondering why I was so late with my blog (I'm not always early anyway, but this is really late) I was dipping and dumping rice.  Ans so I was the rice lady.  We had a vegetable guy, a teen-aged girl as bag/funnel holder, another teen-aged girl as protein dipper, a young mother and another teen-ager doing the vitamins and helping with the funnel.

As they announced in the beginning, there were never too many helpers, and they always found a job for everyone.  Which they did.  Every age group was represented, and everyone had a job.

 Am now at home baking a couple of home-made apple pies to take to Rebecca's house, where we will be having supper before attending the high-school play GREASE.  Will be leaving here about 4 p.m, don't know what time we'll get home, but it has, and will be, a full day

Maybe I'll be on time tomorrow, or maybe I will have decided I like late blogging.  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, stay warm, as it is windy and cold outside, and God Bless.