Giving back while traveling is great, but what about the communities where you live and work. The day after hosting for RAWartists San Diego I went to participate in a San Diego county Hands On event. With volunteer work sometimes you know what you are getting into, sometimes you don’t. This was the case signing up for with Hands On San Diego.

I had volunteered with the organization before doing gardening work, but this time signed up for service with a food distribution organization. I definitely thought this would be an opportunity serving food to those in need. However, I quickly learned that there is more to this process than just the end game.

Food gets donated (in this case) from the San Diego Food Bank on this particular day and they take in 17,000 lbs. of food. This is what we moved from the alley to the storage room using a few small push carts and single wide door. Between the 8 of us, we moved about 2,000 lbs. of food each. This is critical so when any of the 1,200 families they serve per month come in, the food is readily accessible to hand out.

This helped close the circle in my understanding of food distributing.

On top of that, sharing efforts with someone I love was especially strengthening to our relationship. Learning the process together and growing in understanding was something I look forward to doing many times again.