D.C. Day 4: Thursday, March 19
On Thursday, our group experienced two of our favorite sites of the week. In the morning, we rode the bus to "Food and Friends" which is a non-profit organization that delivers meals and groceries to their clients in need. Our group got to wear bright red hair nets and aprons so we could handle the grocery packing portion. We packed grocery bags of a variety of necessities based on the needs of the people, whether they were dietetic, lactose intolerant, vegetarian, etc. We had so much fun dancing to the background music and getting to know our site leader at the same time! It felt great knowing we were helping provide food for those is need! The site was an extremely well-oiled machine with friendly staff and a great end goal! It was the unanimous favorite! After a quick sack lunch, we walked to the Capitol Area Food Bank for our second site of the day. We worked in the enormous sorting room for about three hours. There were multiple bins for canned food, dry food, juices, snacks, toiletries, etc. Our job was to go to the unsorted bins and boxes and manually carry bags to their appropriate sorted bins. It was hard work, but it felt so good being able to see the before and after of our efforts! It was unbelievable how much food goes through this hub before being distributed to smaller food banks in the area. We really don't realize the amount of time, money, and organization that it takes to keep these food banks running. Later that evening, our group made our own supper back at the church: spaghetti and meatballs, salad and bread! We had a great time of group and personal reflection over dinner! Thursday was a great day of service and eye opening learning experiences!
– Laura Rankin