Our Day at the Food Bank
This week, some of us from Chapman had a great opportunity to tour the Food Bank. After working all August long to do as much maintenance as possible, we were able to donate $2257.50 to the Food Bank to support their Buddy Pack program. We not only got to see the area that all of these are assembled, we were given a complete tour of the facility!
The building that houses the Food Bank office is also where they do the intake of all their food donations and the assembly of other “pack” options – such as one for seniors, and a pilot program for veterans.
The Buddy Pack program, along with the other programs that the Food Bank organizes, are all-hands-on-deck operations. The amount of work that has to be done acquiring food, packing it, and distributing the Buddy Packs is nearly 20% of their annual budget – so they rely on community partnerships and donations to really help the most individuals possible.
(An example of a Buddy Pack)
One amazing thing about the Food Bank in Columbia, is that it helps people in 32 counties, all located in Mid-Missouri! You can feel good knowing your time and donations stay in our area.
(Map of their service area)
We learned a lot about how the Food Bank operates. Walking through their seriously ginormous facility, we learned that they are able to turn over their product every two weeks. Standing there it seems impossible to imagine that all of the food you’re looking at could ever be eaten – let alone in two weeks!
(Seriously ginormous facility)
We also learned that the Food Bank is home to (what they believe is) the World’s Largest Orange Spoon! The orange spoon has been a symbol of the Food Bank and they decided to capitalize on that at their location.
At the end of the day, we were most excited to be able to provide more than 12 students Buddy Packs every weekend for and entire school year! Check out their website for more information about how to donate to the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri! Check out these other great pictures from our adventure:
(This is where they assemble the Buddy Packs and sort food for distribution)
(Veteran VIP Pack)
(Storage area for the Buddy Packs only)
(Cooler for fresh food and produce)