Sigh. I love, I really do. But it is so much more work than I imagined 6 months ago!
For some reason I pictured this-
The first few weeks it took off I had to make a schedule and check it often to make sure I didn't forget a pick up. Right now I only pick up from 3 places, yet it feels like more! 1 place I pick up from 6 days a week. The other 2 places are twice a week, but one is only seasonally twice a week and will soon switch to just once a week. Every place is a shot in the dark as to whether I will even get donations if I go to pick up. There is a chance I will drive "across town" as I call it, and there will be no items for me to pick up.
My days now go something like this:
Walk up, get ready. 2 mornings a week I have a pick up before I even take the kids to school.
Take kids to school, get to work!
Check emails, messages, post open times for the day.
Right now I'm working on our fundraiser. I have been spending on average 3 hours a day just driving around talking to business, not including sending e-mails and messages!
Sometimes I deliver stuff when we have too much that hasn't been picked up.
By 1pm I have to make sure the bins are clean and drying. That includes throwing out any un-picked up donuts! I hate that part!
I clean on average 2 bins a day, but range from 1 to 5. I'm dreading winter as I do not want to be scrubbing them outside like I currently do.
Just before the kids get out of school is donut time!
On an average day I get a LOT of donuts! I'm now known as the Donut Lady! Since the donut place is close to the kids school and close to when they get out I try to kill time between so I don't have to drive all the way home just to turn around 30 minutes later.
9 times out of 10 our after school snack is donuts!
I only have 1 evening pick up a week. I also spend some afternoons and evenings preserving what isn't picked up!
I am so tired to canning pickles! I have made so many jars! PS, my pickles are AMAZING!
My main project today was putting labels on ALL of the jars!
Don't they look so cute?
Being organized is my best friend!
The "food pantry" in the basement usually looks like this-
It's a work in progress!
I keep telling Brad, I do NOT know how I would run this thing if it wasn't for my vinyl cutter! I use it for everything! Label bins for donuts, label for donation jar, labels for donation bins, make signs, canning jar labels, bake sale tags and anything I can get away with using it for!
I might be getting 1 new restaurant soon. I have my fingers crossed I get it, but at the same time it will add a lot of work! The new restaurant will require vacuum sealing a lot of what we get from them.
I recently did a month long experiment to see how I would do off my depression medication. All in all, I did pretty good! However, by the end of the month I found that I would get angry over little things and had no patience at all, also I slept horribly. So, for now, I'm sticking to my meds! They keep me sane, sleeping regularly and functioning pretty well!
All in all, the food pantry is so much work, but I LOVE it!
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