OIL… MILK… OLIVE OIL…

For the past two years I have helped as a volunteer at the Banco Alimentar (Food Bank) in Braga. My job was to coordinate volunteers for a major supermarket. I really enjoyed doing it, though a bit stressful at times but since everyone is always glad to help out for such an important cause the two day campaign would go smoothly and I still would have some spare time to actually be a volunteer handing out plastic bags at the entrance of the supermarket and repeating the phrase “Hello, would you like to participate in this campaign?” about 500 times!!

But I always wanted to help out at the warehouse where all the goods are shipped to for separation and shelving. And on my third year as a volunteer I got the chance! Here is where all the action happens: dozens of happy helpers all frenetically processing tons and tons of goods in an extremely well setupassembly line, listening to loud pop music to help stand the cold and keep the rhythm and cheerfulness! Its amazing how thousands of people get together and work together to help feed their community!

I helped to clean out the trucks that arrived with the goods and helped out at the first clearing phase where milk, oil and olive oil are separated from the rest of the goods which are placed in a treadmill. Here is where the assembly line comes in: each team must grab their specified goods and pack them in boxes for shelving.

But what I most recall from the thrilling experience were the sounds: aside from the Macarena, the top Shakira songs, the every other song that no one admits listening to but everyone knows the lyrics and the steps, was the shouting out of OIL… MILK… OLIVE OIL…