// The packing shed

Where the parcels are made.

The Shiloh Ridge shed is a thirty-foot pole barn with a concrete floor, two pallet racks, a long packing table, and a coffee pot that has outlasted three trucks. A tour, in ink.

// Diagram

The shed floor, plan view.

The shed is oriented east–west, with the roll-up door on the east end facing the gravel turnaround. Volunteers enter through the side door on the north wall. The layout has not changed substantially since the 2007 refit, when we poured the concrete floor and added the second pallet rack.

Plan view of the Shiloh Ridge packing shed An overhead diagram showing the packing table, pallet racks, scale station, roll-up door, and coffee corner. roll-up door side door packing table (16 ft) pallet rack A — grains, legumes pallet rack B — canned, sundries scale station coffee corner flow of parcels → roll-up door coffee pot lives here — don't move it
Plan view, not to scale. The shed was originally a hay barn; the south end still smells faintly of alfalfa in August.

// Tools of the shed

What is on the bench.

These are the working tools of the Thursday crew. Most were donated by partner congregations or by retiring volunteers; a few were bought from the parish-support line after many years of service.

The Hobart platform scale. Bought secondhand in 1999 from an out-of-business feed store. Calibrated each January; accurate to within a quarter-ounce per our last check.
The tape gun. Brown kraft tape, two-inch. We go through roughly one roll per forty parcels. The spare guns live in a milk crate under the packing table.
The two-pound dry-goods scoop. Aluminum, with a wooden handle replaced twice. Used for portioning beans and rice from the twenty-five-pound bags into the parcel bags.
The manual pallet jack. The second one we've owned. The first one gave out in 2018 after the Christmas push. This one is a yellow hand-pumper and makes a particular squeak that the Thursday crew claims as its own.
The shed log. A clipboard with a carbon-copy delivery form. The top sheet stays with the shed foreman; the pink copy travels with the parcel and is returned by the partner congregation after distribution.
The pocket paten. A small wooden case made by one of our carpenters in 1998, carried by the chaplains on home visits. Holds a paten, a small flagon, and wafers. Fits inside a coat pocket.
The eight-pound maul. Lives at the woodlot, not the shed, but belongs on this list. The winter-relief crew keeps two mauls and three chainsaws in rotation during firewood season.
The coffee pot. A forty-two-cup percolator. Nobody remembers who brought it. It has outlasted three trucks and two chest freezers. The crew has been instructed, in writing, not to replace it.

// The parcel, enumerated

What is in the box.

The Jireh Standard parcel has changed very little since 2007. Minor adjustments are made seasonally (a jar of apple butter in October; hard candies in December) and occasionally in response to supply. The contents of the standard box, per the shed manual, third revision:

  • — Long-grain white rice, 5 lb
  • — Dried pinto beans, 2 lb
  • — Dried navy beans, 2 lb
  • — Rolled oats, 1 box (18 oz)
  • — Spaghetti, 2 lb
  • — Canned tomatoes, 4 × 14.5 oz
  • — Canned green beans, 4 × 14.5 oz
  • — Canned corn, 3 × 15.25 oz
  • — Peanut butter, 1 jar (40 oz)
  • — Cooking oil, 1 quart
  • — All-purpose flour, 5 lb
  • — Granulated sugar, 2 lb
  • — Nonfat dry milk, 1 lb
  • — Table salt, 1 box (26 oz)
  • — Drip-ground coffee, 1 lb

// The Thursday rhythm

From six to nine.

The Thursday-evening crew arrives at six. The foreman opens the shed, starts the coffee, and lays out the night's packing list. By six-fifteen, pallets are pulled from racks A and B and staged along the long table. By six-thirty the first boxes are moving.

The line has five stations: grains, legumes, canned, sundries, and seal. A runner carries completed parcels from the seal station to the staging pallet on the east wall. The scale sits at the end of the line; every tenth parcel is weighed as a spot check, to catch a missing item before the partner pastor finds it on Saturday morning.

At eight, the crew pauses for a supper of pinto beans and cornbread in the back room, prepared on a rotating basis by the partner congregations. We aim to finish packing by nine, sweep the floor, and turn off the lights by nine-thirty. On a heavy month, the crew has stayed until eleven. In those years, the pot of coffee goes twice.