On Wednesday, I attended Food for Free’s weekly staff meeting with three of the five drivers, and the Operations Director. I introduced myself and the project. I listened to what they chatted about during these sessions, and occasionally asked questions to explore shared frustrations among the team. After learning about some of the pain points that the three drivers identified, I took notes on their feedback. I asked the Operations Director for a sample day of what Friday’s ride along would look like from their database, and plotted the drop-off and pick-up points using Google’s My Maps feature. I attempted to draw out routes based on proximity, and used this map as a point of comparison and preparation for the upcoming ride-along.

On Thursday, Cindy and I presented during the mid-term review, sharing our progress so far. As mentioned during the review session, we are still in the process of determining what problems we can address, as the team meeting and ride alongs have further illustrated a breadth of inconveniences. We also gained some insight into the volunteer management system as we prepared for our individual ride alongs.

On Friday, I accompanied one of the drivers and a regular volunteer on a full-day pickup and delivery run–it was a really enjoyable experience, and they were a pleasure to talk to. We met at 8am at the Food for Free office, and started loading the truck from the office. I informally asked questions throughout the drive and learned more about some of the difficulties of the job, how orders are processed, how technology is used by the drivers and staff, how routes are determined, and so on. They provided interesting insights on problems they encountered while on the job, and gave great food for thought on possible solutions. I helped load and offload materials and gained some insight into the physical struggles and strains drivers and volunteers regularly endure. Throughout the experience, I took photographs and some videos to have an internal archive of what the drivers and volunteers regularly do during a lighter-load day (Friday’s transport was an approximately 1,500lb load, whereas a heavier day might mean 9,000lbs). During the ride, I used Map My Run to track truck movements, and to get a sense of the timing of deliveries and transit. After the ride along, Cindy, Joel and I met to discuss the experience, our future plans with the organization, and how we might be able to help Food for Free from these observations.
In the future, Cindy and I will look through some of the maps (Google’s My Maps, and the Map My Run path) to get a better sense of how the team works together and coordinates the movement of food.