Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Volunteering Fun

Last Friday, I arranged for a group of my Pfizer co-workers to volunteer at St. Mary's Food Bank in downtown Phoenix.  

Our job was extremely complex, as illustrated below:

We portioned carrots out of large 50 lb bags into smaller bags to be given out in food boxes for needy families.  

Okay, so it wasn't really very complex.  But still.  It was nice to do something small to help out, and the need this year is so incredibly high.  Before we began volunteering, the staff gave us some details on the history of the food bank.  Apparently, St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix was the first food bank ever established in the world!  Wow!  They distribute 230,000 lbs of food to hungry families and shelters on a DAILY basis!  Amazing.  Also, we learned that in Phoenix, if you take a typical classroom of 30 children, 6 of them wake up hungry and don't know when or where their next meal is.  It's heartbreaking.  So please donate to your local food bank if you are able to!   Or if you are able to get a group of friends or co-workers together, they have volunteer shifts from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. or 1-4 p.m. Monday-Friday.  Just call them at 602 343-3128 to set it up.  It was a great way to spend the afternoon!




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shelter is the song that was playing as I read this post. How appropriate.

With the terrible economy, food banks in my area don't have enough food to go around. The shelves are empty. It's absolutely heartbreaking. Thank you for doing something to help.

Anonymous said...

That's my baby!