Moments of Magic

Five Can Make a Difference

"Why, hello there." A woman greeted us when we stepped inside a sketchy-looking warehouse.

"Good morning. What a miserable day." Ms. H noted as she took off her jacket. Mr. M (the Spanish teacher), Brittany, Kirsten, and I followed suit. My green Aeropostale hoodie was soaked from top to bottom.

We followed the woman until she stopped in front of many shelves of food, which contained everything from pasta to pastries.

"We're really glad that you volunteered to help us out today. So, basically, you're gonna be helping us sort through the food products that are coming in in boxes. Once you're done with that, you put them in the correct place." The woman instructed. Soon, we got down to work.

Sure, we weren't perusing in Philly or dilly-dallying in D.C. like the seventh and sixth graders were doing respectively. The weather that morning was really miserable, but the warehouse was freezing cold. I immediately regretted wearing a short-sleeved shirt that day. At least we were indoors. I'll admit, the experience wasn't very fun, but we made the most out of it.

"I found juice boxes that expired in 2014." I told Ms. H at one point.

"I found something that expired in 2007." Brittany chimed in.

"Ew."

Several minutes later, I delivered a batch of coffee packages to a warehouse helper. Brittany was there too.

"Here's a batch of coffee packages." I announced.

"Good, now put them here." The helper pointed somewhere. Brittany and I put the coffee where the helper told us to. As we headed back to where the others were, we saw people paying for food at the check-out counters.

"That's a whole lot of food." I said as we saw a few men carry large boxes out of a truck.

"Yeah. This is a food warehouse, after all." Brittany answered. The rest of the time was spent busily sorting food products into boxes and such. Just when I thought I was done, more food products came in. They could've easily filled up a barn.

"Phew. That was really tiring." I huffed at 10:55 am.

"I know. We'll be heading back to the school and we'll have our lunch there." Ms. H announced.

When we got back, we had to write a reflection about our time in the food warehouse. Sometime later, Ms. H came in and told us that we, as a group of five people, were more productive than a group of twenty that came in the other day. That got me thinking.

There are around seven billion people in this world. Five isn't a big number. And yet we got a lot more done in the food warehouse than that group of twenty. Experiences come with lessons. This particular experience had taught me that even one person can make a difference.

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Author's Note: So, yeah, not very school-related, but this was eighth grade community service.