The Internship - Caitlin Boone

1st Week of Internship at FareShare, which is a nonprofit organization that collects surplus food from local grocery stores and food service places and redistributes it out to a variety of charities in the UK. They have 20 regional centers, where the collection and redistribution occurs. 

     The first day of my internship was overwhelming. I honestly had no idea what to expect. So for the control freak inside, day one was tough. When I first got there, I was 30 minutes early so I just hung out. Then, the London regional director, took two other volunteers and myself through an orientation. Following which, the other volunteers and I started working in the warehouse. For the rest of the week, we completed an assortment of tasks: 

Task 1-pick food to complete orders

Task 2-load orders into vans

Task 3-deliver orders to recipient by van transportation

Task 4-sort surplus food drop offs and donations

Task 5-clean up warehouse 

Task 6-reorganize and evaluate in house stock

Task 7-allocate food to recipients, call to confirm orders

Task 8-Depot Manager

A couple stories from the week: 

a) After packing up my things and signing out, I walked to the bus station, just like I do every other day after work. Then this man, who I had just seen in the break room, turns and says to me, "Sorry that I haven't come down and introduced myself. It has been a busy week. I'm Lindsay. I wasn't sure who the new American intern was, but then the other day, I heard your accent in the warehouse as I was walking through." I was thinking to myself... Okay cool. Jeredine told me that people would be coming down and introducing themselves to me, so at this point, this encounter was normal. Next I inquired how long he had worked at FareShare, "5 or 6 years." I responded, "Oh that's nice, what do you do for FareShare?" He replied, nonchalantly, "I'm the CEO." At that moment, I had no idea how to respond. I felt like a little child who was getting in trouble for not knowing an answer to what a teacher asked, but Lindsay did not care.

b) On Friday, we got in a shipment of individually packaged, organic brownies. As I was leaving, a volunteer asked if I wanted to take some home. Gladly, I grabbed a handful. Then she said, "No, take more." She proceeded to put 3 large handfuls of brownies in my bag plus a loaf of lemon poppyseed bread. I told the woman, my flatmates are going to like me today! 

Favorite parts of the week:

a) Afternoon tea: Up until this point, I have never liked hot tea, yet this past week I watched one of my fellow volunteers make it and I had to try it . . . I'm in England for goodness sake. I must say, I was surprised that I enjoyed it! I can finally say, after 2 months of living in England and 20 years of life, I like tea.

b) Bridging cultural gaps: eating lunch, volunteering, and having a break with my coworkers is the BEST way to learn British culture and to perfect the British accent. I have learned even more about British history and some major differences between London and home. I love having those discussions because my coworkers are more than willing to share their opinion and information with me.

c) Learning Supply Chain-unbeknownst to me, I was experiencing supply chain from day one. Picking, calling, warehouse, depot manager, sorting, allocating-that is all supply chain jargon. It excites me to learn about something that I believe to have a passion for, especially when I didn't even know I was learning.

That's a wrap for week 1. It's already hump day in week 3; I can't believe it.

Here's a picture from Mini-Break . . . in Venice . . . that keeps me working for the weekend:

Much love and many thanks for this experience! 

Cheers,

Caitlin