Boxes for the Hungry
Thanksgiving is less than a week away, and even though I am unemployed, I have plenty to be thankful for. While I won't get into the specifics of my gratitude yet, I want to relay a short, but meaningful experience I had today.
With my Toastmasters group, I volunteered to pack boxes of food for the needy in an assembly line. My experience included the adrenaline rush that comes from working under pressure - two straight hours of fast-paced can-placing, box-taping action. Hardcore, considering that the speed required one to think on his or her feet (when items required placement reorganization) and quick adaptability (when processes were modified). I worked at the end of the assembly line and strategically used my arms and hands to fold box tabs. With an average rate of one second per folded box, I worked cohesively with those wielding tape dispensers. In this experience, feelings can express my residual excitement, but only concepts can express a few of the ideas running through my head at the time.
During those 120 minutes, the spirit of volunteerism, along with blood, flowed through my body. In my 21+ years of existence, I must regretfully admit that I had never done a good deed that would benefit the needy, low-income, and homeless. However, today's event highly resonates with one event in my childhood. When I was young, my family was not so well off, as we were recent immigrants to the United States. My parents actually used a food bank service a few times and we were able to get some canned vittles, not unlike the ones packed at today's event. I remember feeling joy when my mom brought back random cans of meat and vegetables and wondering where such wonderful food originated. I suppose the mystery of food bank distribution was solved today.
As I attempted to focus on my work, my eyes barely adjusted to the momentum of the assembly line, but my hands were able to work fast. From moving on the assembly line runway to flying through the air on a wooden pallet, the boxes full of peanut butter, condensed milk, canned fruit and vegetables, cereal, rice, and juices traveled closer to their new homes. Packing boxes truly warmed my heart; I became enthused at the prospect of being able to put a little of myself into the resultant happiness of the satiated. I felt unified with the assembly line team because we worked for one goal - to organize final products that give the needy hope and resources to survive a frosty holiday. Our team of 50+ people (for the last shift) averaged about a pallet (30 boxes) every one to two minutes. I wonder the number of pallets our team contributed to the entire food bank project, though I saw a final number of about 20,000 boxes (three shifts, over five different organizations).
My ruminations led me to daydream about economics and leadership subjects of yore. Nerdy? Yes. First, I pondered about the efficient and inefficient amounts of people on a marginal product curve. If there are eight products to be placed in the box, with one person taping and another person stacking boxes on the pallet, only a minimum of ten people are needed for the assembly line (not counting the forklift drivers). With many sets of assembly lines, longer lines, and more products to pack, more people are needed, though the amount of efficiency reaches an apex when no more people can be added to the line without causing the line to slow down. For example, the line reaches the maximum number of people with too many double roles (people packing the same cans) or with a scarcity of tools or machinery (such as tape). Placing extra people and squeezing them into empty spots will only make the assembly line more crowded. Luckily, such inefficiency rarely happened today, though many volunteers dealt with tape-roll malfunction.
Next, I thought about intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a desire from within to accomplish a task. The opposite is extrinsic motivation, a desire to accomplish tasks coming from external sources, such as money or other material triggers. While I admit that getting free refreshments and an awesome green t-shirt (to match with my buddies) were good incentives to participate, I was also driven by two concepts of intrinsic motivation - camaraderie and the high that comes from doing a good deed. I felt the development of close-knit bonds when I worked with a team to accomplish a common goal that would positively affect many lives (as opposed to volunteering for a private company, where the work would only benefit the employees).
Finally, I contemplated the idea of piecework. Piecework usually refers to an assembly line, where the workers are paid per product that they help to create - the more products they put together, the higher their pay. The opposite of piecework has something to do with salaries or hourly work - you are paid one amount per time frame, no matter how little you do for an organization. There's some conflict between the two because the piecework model causes a person to work harder and take fewer breaks, which may not be a healthy practice, while giving an hourly rate or yearly salary does not encourage a worker to be productive at all times, as he does not receive more money for more effort for the time worked (excluding bonuses). Those effective in a piecework setting are probably more inspired by extrinsic motivation (money), while those effective in a salaried setting are probably more inspired by intrinsic motivation (the feeling of doing a good job).
In total, today's simple, but significant, experience gave me much to think about - not only did it inspire me to give back to my community, but it also allowed me to see the immense power of teamwork and to revisit some fascinating undergraduate concepts. The two hours captivated me with the idea of bringing happiness through a simple donation of my time. However, I did leave with a few battle wounds, including scratches on my fingers and hands. Other casualties experienced by friends included a dirty jacket, which resulted from many accidental footsteps, as well as minor finger cuts and impending soreness from box-lifting.
If helping the less fortunate sounds alien, give the idea a try. Like an exquisite piece of Godiva chocolate, such selfless experiences should be savored and its consumption repeated. We can all add richness and happiness to our lives when we help others.
With my Toastmasters group, I volunteered to pack boxes of food for the needy in an assembly line. My experience included the adrenaline rush that comes from working under pressure - two straight hours of fast-paced can-placing, box-taping action. Hardcore, considering that the speed required one to think on his or her feet (when items required placement reorganization) and quick adaptability (when processes were modified). I worked at the end of the assembly line and strategically used my arms and hands to fold box tabs. With an average rate of one second per folded box, I worked cohesively with those wielding tape dispensers. In this experience, feelings can express my residual excitement, but only concepts can express a few of the ideas running through my head at the time.
During those 120 minutes, the spirit of volunteerism, along with blood, flowed through my body. In my 21+ years of existence, I must regretfully admit that I had never done a good deed that would benefit the needy, low-income, and homeless. However, today's event highly resonates with one event in my childhood. When I was young, my family was not so well off, as we were recent immigrants to the United States. My parents actually used a food bank service a few times and we were able to get some canned vittles, not unlike the ones packed at today's event. I remember feeling joy when my mom brought back random cans of meat and vegetables and wondering where such wonderful food originated. I suppose the mystery of food bank distribution was solved today.
As I attempted to focus on my work, my eyes barely adjusted to the momentum of the assembly line, but my hands were able to work fast. From moving on the assembly line runway to flying through the air on a wooden pallet, the boxes full of peanut butter, condensed milk, canned fruit and vegetables, cereal, rice, and juices traveled closer to their new homes. Packing boxes truly warmed my heart; I became enthused at the prospect of being able to put a little of myself into the resultant happiness of the satiated. I felt unified with the assembly line team because we worked for one goal - to organize final products that give the needy hope and resources to survive a frosty holiday. Our team of 50+ people (for the last shift) averaged about a pallet (30 boxes) every one to two minutes. I wonder the number of pallets our team contributed to the entire food bank project, though I saw a final number of about 20,000 boxes (three shifts, over five different organizations).
My ruminations led me to daydream about economics and leadership subjects of yore. Nerdy? Yes. First, I pondered about the efficient and inefficient amounts of people on a marginal product curve. If there are eight products to be placed in the box, with one person taping and another person stacking boxes on the pallet, only a minimum of ten people are needed for the assembly line (not counting the forklift drivers). With many sets of assembly lines, longer lines, and more products to pack, more people are needed, though the amount of efficiency reaches an apex when no more people can be added to the line without causing the line to slow down. For example, the line reaches the maximum number of people with too many double roles (people packing the same cans) or with a scarcity of tools or machinery (such as tape). Placing extra people and squeezing them into empty spots will only make the assembly line more crowded. Luckily, such inefficiency rarely happened today, though many volunteers dealt with tape-roll malfunction.
Next, I thought about intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a desire from within to accomplish a task. The opposite is extrinsic motivation, a desire to accomplish tasks coming from external sources, such as money or other material triggers. While I admit that getting free refreshments and an awesome green t-shirt (to match with my buddies) were good incentives to participate, I was also driven by two concepts of intrinsic motivation - camaraderie and the high that comes from doing a good deed. I felt the development of close-knit bonds when I worked with a team to accomplish a common goal that would positively affect many lives (as opposed to volunteering for a private company, where the work would only benefit the employees).
Finally, I contemplated the idea of piecework. Piecework usually refers to an assembly line, where the workers are paid per product that they help to create - the more products they put together, the higher their pay. The opposite of piecework has something to do with salaries or hourly work - you are paid one amount per time frame, no matter how little you do for an organization. There's some conflict between the two because the piecework model causes a person to work harder and take fewer breaks, which may not be a healthy practice, while giving an hourly rate or yearly salary does not encourage a worker to be productive at all times, as he does not receive more money for more effort for the time worked (excluding bonuses). Those effective in a piecework setting are probably more inspired by extrinsic motivation (money), while those effective in a salaried setting are probably more inspired by intrinsic motivation (the feeling of doing a good job).
In total, today's simple, but significant, experience gave me much to think about - not only did it inspire me to give back to my community, but it also allowed me to see the immense power of teamwork and to revisit some fascinating undergraduate concepts. The two hours captivated me with the idea of bringing happiness through a simple donation of my time. However, I did leave with a few battle wounds, including scratches on my fingers and hands. Other casualties experienced by friends included a dirty jacket, which resulted from many accidental footsteps, as well as minor finger cuts and impending soreness from box-lifting.
If helping the less fortunate sounds alien, give the idea a try. Like an exquisite piece of Godiva chocolate, such selfless experiences should be savored and its consumption repeated. We can all add richness and happiness to our lives when we help others.
Comments
I especially enjoyed the camaraderie. I don't know about your part of the assembly line, but at my end, there was more testosterone than there were boxes. As such, we craved competition, which might be another element in your post. We made our process as efficient as possible so we could do more than those other organizations.
Oh, and it was 40 boxes per pallet. It's too bad I can't give you the exact number of boxes we completed... but we think it was at least 3000+.
"ONE MORE BOX! ONE MORE BOX! GO GO GO!!!"