Bagging Night at the Food Pantry

The following link will take you to an online photo album of the St. Stephen's Food Pantry at the Shrine of St. Jude bagging night., Friday March 5, 2021 
Photos and article courtesy of Tom Roach

Bagging Night March 5, 2021 - Photos

It was amazing to watch the efficiency and teamwork in filling approximately 300 bags of non-perishable food and another 300 bags of produce for distribution the following Saturday morning.  There are also numerous bags of diapers that were prepared, ready for distribution.  The actual packing process took just an hour and a half (5:30pm to 7:00pm).  

Everyone who arrived signed in, received protective gloves and was assigned a duty.   New-comers were paired with a team-leader.  A separate team arrives earlier, mid-day Friday to setup tables, ready the bags, and meet the truck delivery of produce from the Capital Area Food Bank so the nighttime bagging team is ready to go.  

An assembly of teams worked with machine-like focus; sorters (selecting items from the shelves to the carts), movers (moving carts of non-perishable food from the pantry room to the bagging area), packers (inserting equal number of items into the bags), re-packagers (taking bulk items and packaging it into smaller bags), and recycle and cleanup teams (collapsing boxes).  Leading this effort are parishioners Mike and Jane Goss.

If you wish to volunteer, a signup portal is available for both bagging and distribution at:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0b4aa9ad2ca2fe3-friday

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0b4aa9ad2ca2fe3-saturday

A huge pat-on-the-back to the young volunteers.  They are truly the bright future of St. Jude's and our community.