It was a Thursday afternoon in March, and you could feel the excitement building as project coordinators from Capital One and the Capital Area Food Bank prepared the conference room for the second Weekend Bag Sponsorship packing event. We walked through the room to ensure the stations were set up with the necessary supplies: tables – check; plastic bags – check; boxes and tape – check; food – check. As volunteers filled the room they mingled, enjoyed light refreshments and began double bagging plastic bags.
Petra Khaliqi, volunteer project manager for Capital One, kicked off the event with a few words about their commitment to the community, specifically Ward 8 in Washington, DC. As a Weekend Bag sponsor, they provide the funding and pack bags for Ferebee Hope Elementary School, a Weekend Bag site in Ward 8. Each month, Capital One receives all the packing and food supplies to pack enough bags to serve Ferebee Hope’s Weekend Bag participants for an entire month.
We walked the volunteers through the stations and reviewed each item to be packed. The bags packed included two oatmeal packets, beef stew, corn muffin mix, corn, pear halves, pudding cup and raisins. There were 10 stations including a double bagging station, a station for each menu item, a quality check station and a packing station. Once the volunteers were in place, the fun began as volunteers walked around each station and filled bags with food.
The volunteers worked diligently to pack 320 bags in just one hour! The Capital One project team ensured that there was enough work for all the volunteers and that the time was well-managed. At the end of the event the project team and volunteers left knowing that the kids at Ferebee Hope Elementary School would have full bellies over the weekend.
Weekend Bag sponsorship is the perfect opportunity for two organizations to come together to serve the community!
For more information on the Weekend Bag program, please contact Meleah Boyle at mboyle@capitalareafoodbank.org.