Day 7: Never a boring day

 Tuesday, May 16, 2023

For some reason, after thinking I’d seen it all at the Houston Food Bank, the CEO of Whataburger just stood next to me in the hot meals line?

I had a later start today than I usually do at 10 AM as I decided to work in the kitchen of the food bank all day today. When I arrived at the food bank, I was 5 minutes late due to traffic so I was put right at the end of the assembly line where I had to tie up the bags of milk, fruits, and snacks. It was definitely the more annoying task as the bag is so small, it was tricky to compact the bag and tie it all together but I pulled through. It was also nice to see the twin return to work as they’ve been celebrating their birthday party over the weekend. At around 11:30 PM, the prep for the hotline began for the lunch orders. Today we were preparing brown rice with sweet and sour chicken and a side of peas and carrots. For the first time, I was on the protein part of the line and my god was it hot. In addition to the Houston heat, and the already humid kitchen, the heaters that kept the chicken hot ghosted above the kitchen and my entire arm was burning. We managed to pump out 1200 meals after just a mere 40 minutes. We got a short break and I did my second shift in the kitchen and this was when an army of Whataburger showed up. I was caught off guard but I knew with more people, the production was going to be faster so I wasn’t complaining. I again worked in the chicken station and I only found this out later in the day but the guy on the rice section was moving at a rapid speed. So fast even I couldn’t catch up with him. Lo and behold, he was the CEO of Whataburger and I was having a casual conversation with him without even knowing. At the end of my shift, he even offered me a job offer lol. 

My shift ended at 4, however, as express fest is around the corner I decided to continue my research on the percentage of people in need in Houston compared to specifically Vietnam because in Houston there are institutions that try and defeat hunger while in Vietnam we unfortunately don’t have those yet.

Hours today: 8 Hours

Total hours: 55 hours