Bucket Brigade Lines at Ganas

We are at Ganas on our way to the Tarrytwon craft fair.  There are a number of things i appreciate about Ganas, and one of them is the bucket brigade food unloading line.

Stars join Ganasians to move food from truck to kitchen

On the surface this might appear quite mundane, just moving food from place to place.  But this is more like a complexly coordinated dance, where some participants need to opt out of heavier packages and people who are on top of it are always moving.

Stuff is picked up in a cargo van and unloaded by perhaps 20 people

But using this approach no single person is burdened for very long, there are lots of short treks and you can always extend your rest by stepping out of the queue or by taking on another job in the unload.  And there is a beautiful self-correcting aspect to these lines where people move closer to each other or further apart depending on their enthusiasm and ability.

Willow and Hawina on Corson Ave on Staten Islamd

And as Confucius once said “Many hands make light work.”  We were done in less that 20 minutes, moving food to feed a couple hundred.  A handful of introductions and some sweet conversation later, we were back in the dining room finishing up other conversations.

This is an earlier blog post on this food line as a collective ritual.