For those of you who know me, you'll be surprised to know the visit left me lost for words......Doesn't happen often, but this visit was all that I hoped it would be - and more.
As you'll see from the note below, I had the great fortune to volunteer last Wednesday with Manpreet & Amritpal - thus making our group small, but I will say VERY effective.
The week started out busy - infact, at one stage I was going to postpone, however my wife reminded me of the elements in our lives we can control and those we should not influence (wives are good at doing that)....
I left work early that day, I even anticipated 'dressing accordingly', which in my case meant wearing a casual tracksuit top in place of my suit jacket (an action I would be thankful for later that evening). On arriving at the center, the lineup of men, women, parents with strollers and parents simply holding young babies; lining up outside on a cold evening, left me struggling to complain about the traffic I just had to fight through on the 401. I parked away from the entrance - already humbled.
I followed directions given to me - "Be there for 5:30pm, on arrival let them know you're a volunteer". I walked through the entrance, cognizant that there were families and individuals lining up and I was 'cutting' ahead of them.
As I entered, I saw a lady who obviously was in control - and to my surprise, she greeted me with a huge smile and confirmed I was one of the volunteers. She welcomed me as if I was an old friend, guided me to a room where I waited for 'instructions'.
I can go on and describe the rest of the evening, but what I wanted to emphasize was the reception I received once I entered the building. My warm reception was obviously a result of those from this group who had gone before me and set a precedence of establishing the Sikh volunteers as a group of dedicated, compassionate and socially responsible people. No words can achieve that - only actions.
I eventually linked up with Manpreet & Amritpal, who were working on the edge of a HUGE box filled with a mix of Crackers & Cookies. Working with a 4th (non-Sikh) volunteer, we separated what seemed like thousands of packages into two categories - Crackers & Cookies. To say we picked up momentum is an understatement, in true Sikh spirit, the work was done efficiently and before we knew it, Amritpal was collapsing the box, courtesy of his steel-toe boots. Our evening did not end there, it seemed there was an entire pallet of Organic Soy & Cows milk that needed disposing of (expiry date had been passed) - the 4 of us combined with another group and between the 8 volunteers, we threw away what seemed like thousands of litres of spoiled product (yes, this does happen, however this we were told was a much smaller batch of what was actually given out before the product was unsafe). This task was a tad more messier than separating cookies and crackers, hence the relief of wearing a more appropriate attire.
We ended the evening on a natural high - almost disappointed to have to go home.
To my co-volunteers Manpreet & Amritpal, thank you for making last Wednesday a memorable and life changing evening for me.
Consider me signed up for the 23rd of December.
Thank You Guru's Kitchen for establishing this partnership with Foodpath, and for those of you who haven't made it out there - I can't recommend the experience enough.
This is true seva - I saw it on the faces of the recipients of the food bank, especially those coming in with babies that left with food to feed their families.
Tej.........
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