Fun with Food for Families in Need

by Charlotte Martinez, director of Health4Kids

Motown music fills the bustling warehouse. At his end of the assembly line,
Wayne keeps all the volunteers laughing. At the other end, Mary swings to the

Assembly line

vibrant music while double-knotting a thousand-plus bags so that Duane and Paul, or Nikki and Bill, can load them into bins labeled by school. Judah checks that bags are properly filled by weighing them, swapping out bins when the loaders are ready for the next round. Cindy and Arthur break down hundreds of boxes for recycling, while Lloyd and Anthony keep the baggers’ tables organized and stocked with food.

Volunteers from the Oakland Worship Center

All along the assembly line, twenty volunteers pack bags full of good nutritious food provided by Alameda County Community Food Bank. If you walk along the line, you’ll hear laughing and chatting as bags are carefully loaded with precise amounts of beans, rice, oatmeal, milk, and low-sodium cans of fruits, vegetables or chicken. All this activity is done for the joy of knowing that 1200 families in Oakland will receive bags of greatly-appreciated food to add to their pantries so that their kids, whose main meal of the day is often the school-provided lunch, will have sustenance over the weekends.

Words cannot express my love and gratitude for our faithful volunteers.