Ballet at the Cooperstown Food Pantry: The Food Delivery

By MAUREEN MURRAY
COOPERSTOWN

Beep, beep, beep,” one of the delivery trucks sounds as it slowly backs down the narrow driveway at the Cooperstown Food Pantry Inc., on the Cooperstown Presbyterian Church property.

Earlier that morning, a large tractor trailer truck left the Regional Food Bank of North East New York, located in Latham, laden with the needed food and supplies for Cooperstown and other smaller food pantries in Hartwick and Richfield Springs.

Bruce Hall Corp. provides a 10,000-pound capacity truck and driver every month to meet a team of CFP volunteers at the Regional Food Bank’s local delivery drop site in the Grand Union parking lot in Hyde Park. Often, the load exceeds 9,000 pounds and helping hands move any additional weight onto another pickup truck provided by The Clark Foundation. Then the Regional Food Bank driver heads to his next drop, and back to Latham.

Back at the CFP driveway, 20 or more volunteers who call themselves “The Mules” stand ready to unload. “The Mules” have been summoned by e-mail for their monthly workout. They are young and old, often retired, many taking time out from work or school, and are people you’d like to know. They have set up two long tables—one at the back of the truck, another on the porch—and several roller conveyors on sawhorses.

When the beeping stops and the truck is secured, several nimble “Mules” hop up into the truck bed. The boxes are handed down to those on the ground, who lift them onto a table on the porch. From there, each box is placed on a roller conveyor, and is hand pushed to the pantry door.

Delivery coordinators sort the inventory. Some products head down the stairs to basement storage rooms via a “bucket brigade” of person-to-person hand off. In the basement, three large rooms organize the BackPack Program and any overflow goods the upstairs space can’t accommodate.

Boxes bound for the main storage area are loaded onto the roller and take a right turn into the front room of the pantry. The item is called out by name—“canned tomatoes,” “pasta,” “ketchup.” Those who have placed the order with the Regional Food Bank a week prior now check the boxes against the order sheet. The boxes are hand pushed forward and lifted onto a left turn roller. The chant is repeated—“canned tomatoes,” “pasta,” “ketchup”—as the boxes roll into the pantry storage area.

More “Mules” are stationed in each of the three short aisles where the boxes will be stored to be distributed. When “canned tomatoes” is called out, the volunteer stationed in the aisle where the canned tomatoes reside lifts the box off the conveyor and stores it on wooden pallets, keeping boxes off the floor.

The dance goes on: “pasta,” “ketchup,” “garbanzo beans,” “chicken soup.” Lift, turn, drop in place on a pallet, or stack to be sorted into one of five large freezers or three commercial refrigerators. There is even a dedicated dairy cooler, donated by The American Dairy Association.

In less than an hour the truck is empty, the boxes in place, stacked, but not too high for safety and the comfort of the “Mules” and other volunteers.

Then it’s the pickup truck’s turn. More beeps, more boxes and all is repeated.

When the trucks are empty and boxes and bags have found their rightful place in the rows of food and baby and toiletry items, like the athletic, nimble dancers they appear to be, the volunteers remove the rollers and sawhorses, fold and store the tables, and the “Mules” exit stage left.

Being a “Mule” and assisting with delivery is only one of many kinds of work that support the Cooperstown Food Pantry. Contact Dee Varney at subcfp@gmail.com or (607) 547-8902 to discuss a volunteer job that suits your interests and schedule.

To donate to the Cooperstown Food Pantry, visit the website, cooperstownfoodpantry.org.

Maureen Murray is a member of the Cooperstown Food Pantry Board of Directors.