A day in the life of a volunteer........

If you fail to get up in the morning you fail to get on in life! That was and is still one of my father's most famous sayings! I arrived in plenty of time to be early and wait in line with the other volunteers. You really need to be there before 7:45am to be in a good position to volunteer as the queue is out of the door before 8am!

This is how a typical day proceeds on Welfare Square.

8:00am:registration.
8:10am:job assignments
10:00am:break (chocolate milk is served and its more than delightful to the taste buds)
10:10am:continuation of jobs
12:00pm-lunch is served in the Deseret Industries Cafeteria
01:00pm-continuation of jobs
02:00pm-the end of the working day

Job assignments can be anything from the following list:

Shelf stacking
Fetching stock items from the warehouse to replenish the shelves
Cardboard box compacting
Hosting welfare recipients to obtain their orders
Rotating stock
Straightening shelves
Receiving new stock to the warehouse
Working at Deseret Industries sorting/placing and pricing clothes and non food items
Cleaning toilets
Hoovering
Dusting
Cannery work (by appointment)
Bakery work (by appointment)

Most of the work I have done has been around restocking shelves and ensuring that the shop floor looks neat and tidy. The early shift is certainly a busy one! After 2pm each day there are no "big pulls", another way of saying restocking the shelves, so that the shelves can be run down in order for there to be sufficient jobs for the volunteers who are seeking work. In the morning a frenzied atmosphere is generated from the hive of activity as volunteers make haste to restock the shelves in time for the welfare recipients to obtain their apportionments. These two activities more often than not coincide simultaneously as shopping trolley's and warehouse goods strategically dodge each other around the store. These activities continue in a likewise manner for most of the morning and after lunch until 2pm, especially if the shelves have been run down to use up older stock or there are many welfare recipient visits.

Today I had the opportunity to visit the quality assurance laboratory and, as you might well imagine, I felt quite at home here! They had much of the equipment I am used to in my chemistry laboratory. Several of the employees here explained to me the ins and outs of their department, which I found to be most interesting.

Over 90% of the volunteers who work at the Bishops Storehouse are volunteering in return for food or other needs. Some members work here in lieu of payment of rent or other financial necessities of life and others work for food if they are on longer term welfare and are able to give some time back for the service they receive. There are also transient volunteers, most of whom have no roof over their heads, who come and work in return for food.

Due to the recent economic downturn both in the UK and USA, there have been many members who have lost their positions of employment and are finding it difficult to find further positions. This has resulted in an increase in the number of members requiring welfare and the need for more volunteers to keep the welfare system operating. The Welfare Program of the Church supports those in need back to a position of self reliance by providing the members with immediate assistance with food, rent and bills, in return for volunteer time rendered, as well as assisting members back to work through LDS Employment Services.

All volunteers who arrive early enough in the day will be in receipt of a meal ticket at 12:00pm. Lunch is served in the DI cafeteria just around the corner from the Bishops Storehouse. The lunch that is served is nothing short of a banquet! You can have a main course plus soup, a roll, dessert and two drinks! If you have a salad you cannot have a dessert for some reason! The meal for me was just too big for in the middle of the day so I merely had the soup, salad and roll and those items alone were plenty for me!!! Since I did not have a dessert I felt it incumbent to have a glass of chocolate milk! The chocolate milk is manufactured at the dairy and it is the best I have tasted. Today, whilst eating lunch, I felt truly humbled to be in the presence of those who have very little in this life. Judging from the other people I volunteered with today, I was the only person, aside from the employed staff, who was not in receipt of welfare and who was merely volunteering because I wanted to give of myself in service to those who need it most. I felt fulfilled from the work I had accomplished today! Each volunteer day brings new people and there is never a dull moment on the shop floor!!