The Food Pantry Puzzle: Reading with Two Purposes

The Food Pantry Puzzle

1Every Saturday morning, Mateo and his grandmother, Abuela Rosa, volunteered at the Eastside Community Food Pantry. Mateo usually stacked boxes and wiped down tables. This Saturday, however, the pantry director, Ms. Okafor, met them at the door with a worried frown.

2"The school food drive was a huge success," she said. "That is the good news. The bad news is in the back room." Mateo peeked through the doorway. Cans, boxes, and jars were crammed onto the shelves in no order at all. Soup was jammed beside dish soap. A jar of peanut butter leaned against a bag of rice. On the top shelf, a tower of tomato cans tilted dangerously to one side.

3"Families start arriving at ten o'clock," Ms. Okafor explained. "Our helpers need to find things fast, and the oldest food should go out first so that nothing sits on a shelf past its date. Right now, nobody can find anything." Mateo glanced at the clock. It was barely eight. Two hours did not seem like much time.

4At first, Mateo grabbed whatever was closest and shoved it into any empty spot. After twenty minutes, the room looked just as messy, and his arms ached. He flopped onto an overturned crate. "This is impossible," he groaned.

5Abuela Rosa handed him a bottle of water. "When I cook a big family dinner," she said, "I do not chop, stir, and bake all at once. I do one job at a time." Mateo thought about that. Then he jumped up and found a marker and a stack of paper. In big letters, he wrote SOUPS, GRAINS, VEGETABLES, FRUIT, BREAKFAST, and NOT FOOD. He taped one label to the front of each shelf.

6Next, he and Abuela Rosa sorted every item into piles that matched the labels. As they set each can on its shelf, Mateo checked the date printed on it. He pushed the cans with the earliest dates to the front and slid the newer ones behind them. "That way, the oldest food gets picked first," he explained. Ms. Okafor overheard and gave him a thumbs-up.

7At five minutes to ten, Mateo stepped back. Every shelf was neat and labeled, and even the tomato cans stood in straight, steady rows. When the doors opened, the helpers moved quickly. They filled bags without searching or asking where anything was.

8Later, Ms. Okafor tapped the SOUPS label. "These signs are staying up for good," she said. Mateo grinned. The job that had seemed impossible at eight o'clock had turned into a puzzle he knew how to solve, one piece at a time.