Today felt like the calm after the storm. As well as many of my brilliant colleagues taking well-earned breaks from volunteering, there were far fewer callers than last week. Just to make sure there were enough bodies to deal with any latecomers – we try not to turn people away if at all possible, but it isn’t always possible – the volunteer coordinator had asked some kind folk from a nearby food bank, which wasn’t open this week, to help out. In the end, they weren’t needed but nonetheless it was lovely to meet them.
As I’ve said before, we don’t ask people the reason for today’s visit to us, nor do we ask for ID. Whoever will have referred them to us will already have done that and it must be bad enough just coming to the food bank without being asked a lot of questions, so it’s good that we don’t ask them.
In keeping with the rest of my life, there are certain functions I can’t deal with. We have a ‘greeter’ on the door with a list of prospective callers on a tablet. I was asked if I wanted to do it but once again the prospect of having to learn something very quickly saw my brain freeze and I bottled out. Similarly, I can cope the main job in the food cupboard where three people find stuff on the shelves for packing. I tried it but against my brain fogged over and I told my colleagues I had to do something else, that something being meeting people when they come in and finding out what they want. It’s part of my condition that’s always been there. The difference today is that I’m a volunteer and if I don’t want to do something for whatever reason, I don’t have to do it. And here I could simply tell my colleagues that I have some ADHD-type thing going on that mucks my head up, something I could never do in paid employment.
Anyway, that’s enough about me. What about our day today? Apart from being much quieter – perhaps people assume we are closed between Christmas and the New Year? Quite a few of our referring agencies are – the stories are still just as sad. Broken families, people in work with no money to eat after spending all their money on fuel bills, people in chronic debt, people with severe mental health problems, people whose lives have been ravaged by drugs and basically everyone our society has left behind. I don’t ask people about this stuff: people just volunteer the information. In fact they often tell me loads of personal stuff which, in terms of their mental health can only be a good thing.
More than ever, our callers are so grateful, wishing us a Happy New Year and us repeating it back to them. I am not unaware of the significance in wishing a food bank user a Happy New Year but I always tell people that a better world is possible. Keep plugging away and there is a light somewhere in the distance. It doesn’t have to be like this forever.
I was a bit tired today courtesy of an annoying cold which, since you ask, was not Covid. I could easily and happily stayed in bed all day but I felt like a modern day Grocer Jack, who had to get off my back, get into town and don’t let them down.
Will 2023 be the year when we finally we will no longer need food banks? Simple answer to that: no.
