I volunteered recently with my food banking buddies at a local LDS cannery that donates to pantries. We were among some 60 volunteers to work on peach canning. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to work in a cannery, this may come to mind.
If you’ve ever wondered what you sing in your head the entire time you are volunteering with peaches, the correct answer is this. In other news, this is how peaches go from tree to can. In fact, I was the “man who put them in the can in the factory downtown. So eat peaches everyday.”
1. Suit up with other volunteers to watch silly safety video.
2. Hope you get assigned to a cool job.
3. Smile even when you don’t get to play with the food, thankful this isn’t your day job.
4. Take lots of photo breaks, claiming you are “union.”
5. Spend a lot of time thinking about John Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row” and the characters who canned fish in “Snow Falling on Cedars.” Realize you’ve read way more about manual labor than you’ve ever experienced. Rejoice. Go home, bake a pie, be thankful you have both food and a cushy job.
~K