How was everyone's weekend? Mine was pretty good. Friday night I enjoyed a relaxing night in so that I could wake up nice and refreshed to volunteer Saturday morning. September is Hunger Action Month. Throughout Hunger Action Month America's food banks call upon communities to take part in the "30 Ways In 30 Days" campaign, which states 30 ways to fight hunger in the 30 days of September. You can choose to follow the campaign's suggestions or you can pledge to help in your own way.
I decided to become involved with Hunger Action Month by volunteering at my local food bank. I have volunteered there once before and really enjoyed the experience so I recruited the guy to come with me and participate during their Saturday weekend volunteer session.
We had originally signed up to volunteer in the new Community Kitchen. The Community Kitchen is a training program for a group of students to learn about culinary arts, nutrition, knife skills, and prepare them for the work force. The meals that are prepared in the program are made from the donated food, frozen, and distributed throughout various programs in the state. Unfortunately the program wasn't open this particular weekend so we worked the conveyor in the warehouse sorting the food donations into various categories such as baking needs, tomatoes, canned prep, water, candy, etc. They were a little low on the donations because of the slow summer months so we finished early and went on a tour of the facility afterwards and learned some interesting fact about the Maryland Food Bank and it's programs. It was a great experience and it felt great to give back know that the service will contribute to helping the local community. Last year alone the Maryland Food Bank distributed 18.6 MILLION pounds of food across the state to feed the 455,601 Marylanders living at or below the federal poverty level, and hope to reach 20 million this year!
To learn more about the Maryland Food Bank, it's programs, how to get involved, or how to donate visit here. To find a local food bank near you visit here
Front of building
the conveyor belt
My volunteer partner
Pack that water!
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