Upon arrival, we entered a dingy room, with stand-alone shelving units, a table in the middle, and two refrigerators. Isaac, the manager, had moved the food and tables.
Our mission: make the room a refreshing place.
With two different shades of paint, one for the walls, and one for the shelves, we got to work. We moved the refrigerators into the hallway, two of shelving units outside under a pop-up, and the third unit (too big to fit out the door) got moved to the center of the room once we had laid down a drop cloth.
We were short some people, so unfortunately, we weren't able to have as much rotation as what would have been ideal; but we still did an amazing job, and we almost got done on time.
Mani worked on the refigerators, and later helped April (Jana's daughter) by showing her how to clean the refrigerators. (I love this picture!)
Sousan and Mario took on the shelves on the outside, with some help from Mani and April later in the day. Some of the shelf borders had broken; they worked on replacing them with new pieces (as in the picture). They primered the sides and the fronts of the shelves, and then painted them.
Denise, Summer, April and Jana helped with the room prep and room painting. The room was really dirty, and we had to sweep several times, wipe down the walls, and sand them in some parts. We applied triple coats to the walls that we could, which really made the room look fresh.
April and Summer worked on printing up new labels for the shelves, and laminated them, which gave them some practice creating tables in Microsoft Word and troubleshooting with the printer. You know how it is!
Our last challenge was getting everything back into the room. With determination and spunk, we maneuvered the shelves back into the room. What an exercise in communication!Jana led a wonderful reflection session, focusing on several questions that made us think about what we were able to accomplish that day, what it would mean for the organization and their ongoing volunteers, and what we could take from the experience. It was great seeing everybody working busily to make each day brighter for the volunteers that come in on a weekly basis to distribute food to those that need it.
Removing the shelving units from the room led to two discoveries:
1) there was an extra a/c unit, and
2) there was a window in the room!
We were able to rearrange the units to allow access to the window, which only increased the freshness of the new paint. What a transformation!
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