Sunnyside & Woodside MA on Instagram: "Drivers are key to making sure our weekly pop up pantries can happen! Drive along with awesome SWMA member @vitalmountain as he shows us what a driving shift looks like. SWMA is always looking for more drivers to ensure our pantries can happen! DM us if you have any questions about joining SWMA or any of the weekly volunteer shifts in the bio"

Our main storage is hosted at St. Jacobus Church. All driving duties are either

1. Bringing new food/supplies to St Jacobus

2. Bringing food/supplies from St. Jacobus to one of our Saturday Pantry Tables

3. Bringing leftover supplies from pantry tabling BACK to St Jacobus

1. Bringing new food/supplies to St Jacobus

We have three routine sources of food/supplies

1. Restaurant Depot - this is considered a shopping trip and currently happens during the weekday i.e. NOT on pantry day. see Drivers (shopping for pantry) for details
2. BJs - this is ALSO considered a shopping trip, like Restaurant Depot - see Drivers (shopping for pantry) for details
3. The Connected Chef - this typically IS done on pantry, as the "Driver from Connected Chef → St Jacobus → 46th St-Bliss MTA Station* Not currently active" shift - see below for details

Shifts

1. Driver from Connected Chef → St Jacobus → 46th St-Bliss MTA Station *46th St Pantry is currently not active

• We usually batch this shift with driving to one of the pantries afterwards, because this driver has to drop off the produce at St Jacobus, which is where all the pantry shifts start. That's why you see Connected Chef → St Jacobus → 46th St or Connected Chef → St Jacobus → 61st Street
• Pickup address: 49-09 5th St, Long Island City, NY 11101 (the Google maps listing for the connected chef is wrong!)
  • Small but spacious enough parking lot with 2 big shipping containers - look in both containers and only take exactly what we ordered unless there are special instructions for that week
  • There's usually other people from other groups that can help load cars and there's a cart to push heavy items, but it sometimes help to bring another person - produce always fits in backseat + trunk
• Process
  1. @siddarth Anand puts in a bulk order of produce with the Connected Chef every Tuesday evening, and they're ready for pickup by Saturday morning
  2. Sid sends the list of what we've ordered plus any special pickup instructions from the Connected Chef to the driver that signed up for this shift by Fri evening/Sat morning
  3. Drive to 49-09 5th St, Long Island City, NY 11101 (the Google maps listing for the connected chef is wrong!)
  4. Location is a small parking lot with shipping containers. Gate will be locked. Get code from Sid or Virtual Point Person (sometimes it is unlocked by another mutual aid group)
  5. Connected Chef usually places the contents of our order into a neat pile (should be a few bags/boxes of produce) either outside (under the roof/tarp) or inside one of the shipping containers. Other mutual aid/fridge groups like Queens Care Collective and Astoria Fridges also pick up from Connected Chef on Saturdays, so it's important to:
     • go off the list Sid sends and only take what we ordered - groups have in the past accidentally taken stuff meant for other groups
     • clearly state you're from SWMA - often times some groups assume that you're there for their group and might just give you other people's stuff - make sure to say you're from SWMA and you have a list to go off of!
  6. Bring and unload the produce at St. Jacobus. If this shift is paired with driving to a pantry location, load up the pantry table supplies

2. Bringing food/supplies from St. Jacobus to one of our Saturday Pantry Tables

Shifts

1. Driver from St Jacobus → 61st St-Woodside MTA Station

Tips - ? like Common Loading Zone pictures? descriptions?