Farm Aid 2012 Volunteers

Several of my friends work on the Dickinson College Farm and this year the manager of the College Farm, Jenn Halpin, was named as one of Farmer Heroes by Farm Aid. This summer when my friends found out that the Farm Aid concert would be held in Hershey PA (just 20 miles from Dickinson) they were eager to get involved and invited me along. We all applied to be volunteer and were placed on the food prep duty (a 6 hour shift which only lasted 3 hours!)

Lauren and I in our Kick Ass volunteer shirts.

 

Megan, Lauren, me, Tabea and Madison.

The gang- Evan, Lauren, Me, Megan, Tabea, Madison and Kayln.

After volunteer check in we headed over to the staff catering tent to get a bite to eat before our shift started.

All local and organic food.

mmm breakfast!

Megan and Lauren enjoying the delicious spread.

After fueling up we went over the the Giant Stadium to get to work in the kitchen. Hershey Park does not have its own kitchen on site which is why we had to go to the stadium about a mile away. They rely on all packaged foods that don't require anything more then renormalization. Through catering this event Farm Aid was able to show Hershey Park that it is possible to feed 30,000 people on locally sourced, organic ingredients if you have and use the resources available (aka a Kitchen).

The kitchen staff was very well organized and on-top of their game so there was not too much work for us to do. At  first it felt like we were more of a burden then a help to them but then they began to loosen up and I could tell they really enjoyed our company. We provided some comic relied and we all had fun joking around.

Working hard.

Around 12:30 or 1 the paced picked up. The food had to be on its way to the catering tent by 2:30. Madison, Megan and Tabea helped wrap and label food as it was on its way out the door.

Lauren and I were on Green Bean steaming and buttering duty.

so much butter!

By 2:30 the food was being loaded on to the truck to be driven over to Hershey Park. 

Our shift was scheduled to run from 10:30-4. The food was out the door at 2:30 which left nothing else for us to do so the Head Chef let us leave early to enjoy the event.