Working in Produce

As I read the second section of Tracie McMillan's The American Way of Eating, I found myself relating to a lot of her retail experiences, and not just because she was in Michigan throughout those months.  I started working part time when I was sixteen as a grocery bagger at a small, Southwest Michigan chain (now owned by Spartan Stores) called Family Fare.  Eventually, I was promoted to produce clerk.  I LOVED working in produce, and I LOVED eating all of the expired stuff!  I ate a tomato and cucumber sandwich for lunch every day.  I bought a loaf of bread from the deli, picked up a bruised tomato (there were always bruised tomatoes!) and a cucumber, and sometimes grabbed an expired prepackaged salad to go with the sandwich.  One night, a customer dropped a 5 pound box of blueberries.   Some of the berries rolled onto the floor, so I took the package off the shelves and put it in the back room.  By the end of my shift, I had eaten at least three pounds of the remaining blueberries (after I cleaned the floors and rinsed off the rest of the package).  To be honest, I was sorry a few hours later, but fresh berries are still one of my favorite snacks. 

I worked a lot of different jobs from the age of 16 until I started teaching full time at just 22 years old.  During the school year, I was a bilingual tutor for Kalamazoo and Parchment public school districts.  During the summer (and over the holidays), I picked up lots of hours in the food industry.  I stocked produce and dairy for Family Fare for $5.25 an hour.  I worked overnights at Target, but that only lasted a few weeks.  Like Tracie, I found that the part-time overnight schedule made me miserable.