Every other Tuesday morning at 970 Jefferson St., the Urban Recipe staff is busy pulling together the last touches to prepare for volunteers to come assist with Pallet Prep.
Pallet Prep is our volunteer opportunity that directly supports co-ops. Since we started in 1991, Urban Recipe staff have played an important role in sourcing and prepping the food for our co-op members before the meetings. At meetings, co-op members participate by sorting and distributing food equitably amongst themselves. Today is no different, except now we have volunteers assist in this process!
At Pallet Prep, volunteers and staff members work together to distribute food to our 10 co-ops. But it’s not as simple as equally splitting up the food. At Urban Recipe, we emphasize equitable distribution, with smaller families taking home smaller amounts of food and larger families taking home more food.
Co-op size limits are determined by a variety of decisions, including constraints to meeting space and number of years the co-op has been in operation.
Out of our 10 co-ops, 6 of them have a capacity of 50 families and 4 of them have a capacity of 25 families. These families are all varying sizes, from single-person households to 14 people in one home. As we prepare the food for distribution, we want to make sure there is the right amount for everyone. Most items are distributed by unit, with larger families receiving more of each item. Other times, food is distributed by family, with each family getting an item. This is more common with large items (like a whole apple pie) or priority items (like a carton of eggs).
This level of detail is only possible because of our co-op member’s responsibility! They commit to coming to the co-op regularly and communicating if they will be absent. We know who is going to show up each week and can ensure there is plenty of food for them.
That’s where Pallet Prep comes in.
Preparation
Preparation for Pallet Prep starts a week out. Our Program Manager, Reed Stewart, orders food sourced primarily from the Atlanta Community Food Bank and prepares the inventory for distribution. She prioritizes protein, grains, canned food, and breakfast items in every bin, and tops them off with other items we have in stock, such as bread, frozen meals, desserts and snacks. Reed then organizes the inventory, detailing what is needed to ensure all of our co-op members receive food.
This list then goes to the warehouse, where our Director of Operations and Operations Manager, Jamillah Gilmore and Anthony Gates, work to prepare the inventory for packing.
Volunteers arrive on Tuesday morning, ready to load up the pallets.
The Volunteer Session
Volunteers work together, using carefully crafted inventory sheets, to load food items onto pallets for co-op. Each co-op has a pallet of frozen food, a pallet of non-perishable food, and a pallet of “choice” assorted food and home goods. Co-ops also receive fresh produce, which is prepared closer to the co-op date.
Volunteers get their workout in during the session!
Volunteers drive pallet jacks, load boxes, and carefully stack pallets, ensuring there is enough for everyone. Filling 30+ pallets of food is a big job! It takes between 2-3 hours, with volunteers getting their workout in, moving around 15,000 lbs of food during the volunteer shift.
After the shift, the finished pallets are stored on the warehouse shelves or in our freezer and refrigerators until co-op time, when the food is then trucked to the various co-op meeting locations.
With a small staff of just 6 full time employees at Urban Recipe, we completely rely on volunteers to get the work done.
While we have a couple of veteran Pallet Prep volunteers (many thanks to Stephen Rogers, Becky and Rob Vinson, and the team at Truist!), we are always seeking more help to feed our co-op members. Come visit us in the warehouse and sign up today to volunteer!
We are grateful for the opportunity for volunteers to directly feed our co-op members. As food travels from the Atlanta Community Food Bank and our other food partners to the hands of volunteers to our co-op members, each step is part of the recipe for food security.
