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Kerri Liu
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2 Design Firms + 3,244 lbs of Pasta = One Great Friday
Posted by Kerri Liu in Matters To Us on September 21st, 2010You may have read in the news recently that in 2009 it was reported that over 43.6 million people in the United States are living in poverty. The poverty line being defined by an annual income of $21,954 for a family of four. This means 1 in 7 people are possibly having to make the decision each day to pay their bills or buy food.
It is times like these that make organizations like the Greater Chicago Food Depository so important. Serving the Chicagoland area, the Greater Chicago Food Depository inspects, sorts and repacks food for distribution to member agencies throughout Cook County. Last year the Food Depository distributed 66 million pounds of food.
Surprisingly enough most of this is made possible by the large amount of volunteers the Food Depository attracts each year. Teaming up with our good friends at Grip Design in Chicago, we decided to experience this great organization and hopefully lend a helping hand.
On Friday we took leave of our office chairs, shut down the computers and headed out to the south side of Chicago to pack some pasta. Kraft Food generously donated 3,244 lbs of rotini pasta which, assembly line style, we (along with many other volunteers that showed up that day) shoveled, packaged, weighed, labeled, packed and sealed into boxes to be shipped to food pantries across Cook County.
With speed, agility and some great instruction from the staff at the Food Depository we had a record breaking day.
Check out our stats:
3,244 lbs of pasta packed into 2,976 bags and then into 248 cases. Not bad for a day’s work!
So who will this food feed? The 2009 Census Reports shows that it could be just about anyone. Poverty has risen across every demographic, though is having a more serious effect on children (1 in 5 are growing up poor). This means that if you are living in the Chicagoland area this packaged pasta could be feeding several families in your own neighborhood.
For these reasons we would love to encourage anyone who is blessed to have extra right now to be active in sharing. Whether it be food to local food pantries or even your time to help make sure local social service organizations are able to reach the people who need them most.
For more on the recent poverty reports and what that means for families across the US click here.
Let us know what you are doing to help the people in your community!
[...] new system for finding donors. Recently, we volunteered alongside our good friends from Grip at the Greater Chicago Food Depository where we worked in an assembly line packaging crates of noodles that had been generously donated. [...]
[...] Grip Design and Faust we were able to take a break from our busy schedules to lend a helping hand. (Read more about our serving adventures here.) From brightening up a dreary stairwell with a cheerful mural to organizing a cluttered supply [...]