Like last year, Mark and Ron invited our family to join them in working at St. Mary's Food Bank to help distribute turkeys, produce, and canned goods to families in need.
St. Mary's is a large operation. For this particular day, they have two shifts, plenty of corporate volunteers, and individual volunteers like us. It is set up with two lanes of vehicles, 7 stations in each lane. There is a group of volunteers at each station, the cars are marked with the number of family meals they are receiving (generally one, but up to 5). It is a bit of an assembly line, but a lot of families receive these ready to be cooked meals in a relatively short time. Efficient.
This was our group...
Twelve of us working at two tables. Other tables were manned by a large group of police officers, another by a group of young Mormon men, another large group from a financial company.
Steph was in charge of "flagging" - stopping cars at the right spot, the letting the traffic coordinators know when we had a vehicle loaded. Three of us were loading goods into cars, and two others staging food onto tables so we could keep the flow going.
A few other photos I was able to get...
Steph and Dan on the bus that took us from parking to the food distribution areas (the parking was about a mile away). Steph on the job (below)...
Steph and Dan with the line of cars...
Walking back to the buses after our shift...
It's a very worthy cause. Their Mission Statement: Bridging the gap for Arizona communities with nourishment for today and hope for tomorrow. There are St. Mary's outlets around Arizona - they feed more than 250,000 people each day. They partner with more than 600 non-profit organizations to insure Arizonans in need have access to food, including children's programs, and operating a skills center with programs in warehouse logistics and food service.
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