Today was the first day I went in to Friendship Trays with my fellow BHP members. Like other students, I felt fairly uninformed with regard to what my responsibilities would be during the day. As we entered, we were instructed to wear a hair net, apron, and gloves. Once we did that, we were told to go to kitchen, which was much larger than expected. We were then split into different sections: preparation, cooking and the assembly line. I was tasked with both preparation and cooking. Prepping included cutting vegetables and helping to get ingredients from the fridge, doing the dishes and even placing cookie dough on large sheet pans. Shannon, a fellow BHP member, and I were paired together. We were first told to place cookie dough from multiple boxes onto trays. We were both excited with being assigned this task, as it not only smelled yummy, but also seemed much easier than what everyone else was doing. Once we finished placing the dough onto sheet trays, we were instructed to place them into the ovens for baking. This was by far the hardest task to complete as the smell was irresistible! Following this, we were told to help get boxes from the freezer. Neither of us knew what were in the boxes, but once we brought them out, Angela Parker, assistant to the chef, told us to just drop the boxes on the ground as hard as we could in order to be able to open them with more convenience. We were entertained with this idea, but the rest of our peers were rather confused at what it was that we were doing. When we opened all the boxes, we saw spinach in half of them and corn in the other half. We had to steam both of the frozen vegetables separately, then drain them and place them into trays so that they could go out into the assembly line. The assembly line was where students and volunteers were strategically placing different food items into each compartment on the tray, sealing the trays, and storing them in the fridge for future delivery. We concluded our work in the kitchen by helping soap and clean every surface that may have been touched or used in order to keep the kitchen sanitary and safe. Our group thanked Friendship Trays for welcoming us and before we left, we took one big group picture with our aprons and hairnets still on. Shannon was thankful to have been a part of such an effort but would rather have stayed home and slept on that rainy Friday morning. I however, was intrigued by all that the organization did for their community and wanted to continue to go back. In order to assist them in the role of a more frequent volunteer, Jeremiah, a fellow BHP volunteer and I decided we would definitely be returning.
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