PHOENIX – Thirty-one U-Haul Team Members, family members and friends came together on Sept. 19 at St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance for U-Haul Company’s monthly volunteer day.
September also serves as Hunger Action Month. St. Mary’s has invited the community to help fight hunger by participating in events throughout the month. Orange spoons, feather boas, hats and glasses in the break room allowed volunteers to take some fun photos and spread the word online using the hashtag #spoontember.
After a quick lesson on St. Mary’s history as the world’s first food bank, volunteers were taken to their assembly-line stations and tasked with placing food items into boxes: cereal, pasta, rice and cans of vegetables and fruit.
However, the tape machine that assembles the boxes as they first go out was out of service. This meant our U-Haul volunteers needed to manually tape the boxes. Lucky for us, U-Haul Team Members are the experts when it comes to moving supplies like tape. The volunteers didn’t miss a beat.
Box after box went down the assembly line getting filled with nutritious food. After passing through the last strip of tape, the boxes were stacked on a pallet. At the end of the day, U-Haul volunteers packed 1,140 boxes that filled 19 pallets and weighed more than 18,000 pounds!
“This was actually my first time at St. Mary’s,” U-Haul Team Member and volunteer Elisabeth Novak said. “What really made an impact for me was the amount of people that volunteered and how efficient we were as a team. It was such a great experience to represent U-Haul and come from all different buildings and departments to work towards a common goal. Knowing that we were able to pack that many boxes is truly amazing. I had a blast.”
U-Haul volunteers visit St. Mary’s at least twice a year and are involved in other projects to aid the Food Bank, including the annual delivery of Thanksgiving turkeys that Team Members choose to donate. U-Haul also is a proud Hunger Hero. Through the Hunger Hero Program, St. Mary’s recognizes and honors organizations making an extraordinary impact in the community through gifts of volunteer time, food drives and cash donations.
St. Mary’s collects and distributes food to 10 of Arizona’s 15 counties. According to Charity Navigator, St. Mary’s puts 96.4 cents of every dollar toward programs to feed the hungry. The nonprofit organization is committed to building community relationships and improving the lives of Arizonans in need.
Thank you to our volunteers: Rod McDowell, Marcia Chiariello, Courtney Neyra, Diego Neyra, Jess Quinio, Shawn J. Quinio, Alonna Ross, Zofia Sells, Elisabeth Novak, Laura Rollins, Margaret Mazzella, Robyn Mazzella, Paige Eagles, Brenda Fillmore, Crystal Heuft, Juliann Vanwormer, Amber Bremer, Lanny Olds, Michelle Vukov-Mikel, Morgan Smith, Kate Bickmore, Hilda Shockey, Antoinette Duncan, Jenn Roldan, Liza Perry, Tyler Perry, Paul Perry, Kimberly Wolf, Evan Nicolls, Lori Provencio and Isaac Provencio.
Last Time Out: Read about our August volunteer day at Andre House by clicking here.
