Mobile Pantry Food distribution

This was an overwhelming event.  There were 400 people waiting in line in the dark cold when I got there waiting to get into the church.  The parking lot was sheer ice and treacherous.  They let us in an we set up stuff with no clue about how events would unfold.  As people came in we gave them our questionnaire but there was hesitancy about when to collect it.  We had to maintain order and keep people in line to turn in it.  We also ran a lottery for tee shirts and cook books which was very popular. People kept on stopping by and saying they wanted a tee shirt.  We collected surveys for the next four and one half hours.  It was chaotic and exhausting!  So many people were in bad shape.  Some couldn't read. Many were physically challenged.  Most people were missing teeth.  Many were overweight.  Families were there too.  We met refugees from Burma (Myanmar), Somalia, Tanzania and other places.  It was a pretty sobering experience.  A couple of people said our survey made them depressed because we asked about nutritional hardships.  We collected a ton of surveys but will need to judge the quality.   We gave out almost all of the compensation money which people really appreciated.  Pictures will follow.  They finally put us in the chapel to control the flow of people.  They were still distributing groceries to a long line of people when we left at noon.  Hope everyone got some food.  There is just such real need!