Feed My Starving Children

One of Eryn's classmates had a birthday party today.  We were all invited to Feed My Starving Children to package meals.  The kids are a little slower than adults usually, but they still packaged 58 boxes, or about 12,000 individual servings, for Thailand or Haiti.  I was originally on warehouse duty, folding boxes, swapping containers of rice and vegetables and moving packed boxes around.  It was a bit overcrowded in that department, however, so I switched to putting expiration labels on food bags.  It made me have flashbacks to labeling continuing education flyers for the nurses' association bulk mailings.

The second part of labeling a little boy joined me, age 6. He was a lot of fun and did a great job and made it go much faster as he was chatty.  We talked extensively about family and friends and school and after a while got around to the fact that his scooter turned into a Transformer, but it wasn't nearly as big as his father's Transformer.  That's right...his dad has a transformer bigger than a full-sized scooter.  His dad also lost the kid's Star Wars character on the video game console and claimed those that were left as his own.  The kid stated it was very mean.  I couldn't disagree, but lamented the general fallibility of computers.  And then we got to favorite books.  He told me his favorite book was about fish and scuba diving.  I asked if he wanted to be a diver or work with fish when he was older and he assured me he liked fish, but that the important part was that the book talked about Jehovah.  Pausing in his labeling, he leaned forward across the table and earnestly asked, "Does your daughter Eryn understand about Jehovah?"

I avoided the discussion on a technicality, and assured him Eryn did understand who Jehovah was.  Then we went right back to talking video games, soccer, summer activities, websites, and first grade.

Here's Eryn with her classmates/friends discussing the setup.


Ditto.  See that dress to  the right with the British flag on it?  That's a Doctor Who themed dress.  Very cool.


Food packing has started.


Eryn was in charge of soy.


My wife was in charge of bag sealing.  You had to be 18 or older. Here's someone younger than 18 explaining to her how it works.

Points!

I've been entering Coke Rewards points since my accident as I couldn't really do any charity work that involved a ladder or lots of walking for a while.  So instead, I kicked up four rewards accounts and attempted to make a dent in the giant box full of caps in a cube at work.  Pictured is my own box, which I'm trying to empty for the second time.  At least anecdotally, I'm having an impact.

I've entered 7440 points so far (2480 caps).  Most of them for Northview Elementary.  If I use a $50 gift card (2000 points), that's about 2.5 cents per cap.  If I switch over and use an LED TV, it comes down to like 1.2 cents per cap.  And a TI-83 calculator, six tenths of a cent per cap.  You'd think school stuff would average higher.  If you go with the classics, like a TF-500 basketball, you're back up in the 2.2 cent/cap range.  So overall, I've entered $162.44 worth of caps so far this year, which took about 62 hours (about 15 minutes to max out a 120 point account, e.g. 40 caps), or $2.62/hour.  Ouch.  Maybe I should just get a minimum wage job one hour a week and donate the proceeds?

I get the added benefit that the caps are recyclable at Aveda and stay out of the environment (in a bad way), but my caps are barely a dent in the 56,000,000 they'd collected by 2011 - I'm .004428% of the total). So many they're not taking new schools on.

Charity

The annual charity drive is underway at work. I've always tried to participate in work events, even before I was a manager, but now I feel I need to put in extra effort to make sure I'm setting a good example. Yet I feel I should make sure whatever I'm doing reflects a bit of my personality.

So here's an example of me engaging in a bit of characteristic asshatery as regards the charity drive. There's a competition to decorate a balloon. Coworkers then vote on the balloons by donating a dollar. Presumably, the balloons should float. I took a different tack. This is the gold balloon.

And this is the silver balloon. Eryn helped me and giggled the whole time about how funny it was that they weren't going to float. Her sense of humor is definitely environmental.

Odds and Ends - MS 60, Slacker Manager

Erik the Swede put me on to this site, Slacker Manager. It's a useful enough source of managerial reading material that it's in my links list. I also added a link for the weather in Eagan. It's so specific it tells me the inside temperature. Now I have to look around the house for the weather station.

I am in the MS 60 this year. Not the 150. I decided to go for a single day event rather than the two day abandon the family for the weekend version, particularly as I'm running away to RAGBRAI for a week. A friend donated $50 in my name, so I at least meet the minimum, but I encourage people to donate anyway. You can find the Wild West Outlaws team here, and we're a long ways from our target. If you don't feel like donating to me, try donating to Ming Tan or Kirat Sekhon - both of them need to meet their $50 minimum.

Stuff About Minneapolis has an article on Community Agriculture with a list of Minneapolis CSAs via Heavy Table. MNSpeak/Secrets of the City has an open post up on CSAs as well. I think we'll be doing this in my family this year.

Let's Go Crazy sung a capella (MNSpeak via MNStories)


There's a new Dora! If you're protesting, you have a problem.

Secrets of the City also posted a link to this commentary designed to piss off cyclists. The comments are the good part.

Feed My Starving Children

I donated two hours of my time yesterday to stuff bags full of rice and flavor powder and rye and dried vegetables (primarily for color, I think). There were 40 of us from work and 9 other people I didn't know. We packed 24,408 meals, or 4,068 bags (6 cups/meals per bag), or 113 boxes (36 bags per box). While one cup doesn't seem like a meal, FMSC primarily targets starving people, not just malnourished, so the cup of food is enough to keep them them from getting sick on too much food after not enough until they're well enough to eat more. The food we packed will feed 67 people for a year. It's a religious organization, which is a bit weird for me, but I figured as long as I personally didn't have to pray over the pallets of food and they weren't distributing food to only card-carrying Christians, I didn't care. It's a good cause. Supposedly they'll package 64 million meals this year, and hope to reach 100 million by 2010. They opened another packaging center near Chicago to expand their operation. All in all, a good use of my two hours, despite how bending over to bag and dump cups of rice and rye made my back ache a little, and my hair smell like (vegan) chicken flavor powder. At the end, they even let us try a little cup full of the food. It needs tater tots.

Here I am in my hair net (blue shirt and dress pants) setting up food bags.


The lot of us in front of the charity. Ming's on the right (a familiar face from my blog). I'm back left (where tall guys belong).

MS 150 Bike Ride

I am officially signed up for the MS 150 bike ride next year from Duluth to Minneapolis as part of the company team. So if you're in a giving mood, have to donate a little to flush out your 2007 donations, are planning early for your 2008 donations, have a bit of change lying around in a coffee can, or owe me a favor, keep me in mind. I thought I'd get the notice out early so I'm on the radar. If you're a coworker, consider joining the team yourself - two days of biking is not as difficult as it seems, coming from Duluth it's all down hill, and you get to enjoy some fit, handsome, multi-cultural company in the guise of Ming and me.

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Dear Friends and Family,

The National MS Society is kicking off the Bike MS: Larkin Hoffman 150 Ride 2008. I am planning to be a part of that event and, I ask you to join me in the fight against multiple sclerosis by making a contribution to support my effort.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is dedicated to ending the devastating effects of MS. They simultaneously fund research for a cure while also helping people who currently live with MS lead more fulfilling lives. I believe in the work they do, and I invite you to see for yourself all the good they've done for the MS community. More than 400,000 Americans live with MS, and your support can and will make changes in their lives.

Please help by making a donation — large or small — to fight MS. Or, why not join me on the event? Become a participant and side by side, as teammates, we can work together to raise the funds that make a difference.

Whatever you can give will help! I greatly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress.

Click here to visit my personal page and make a secure, online donation.