On April 2nd-5th, 2019 members of the East Cobb Branch of AYLUS packed lunches for people at Garden Terrace and Clifton Ridge Apartments under the YMCA Holiday/School Break Lunch Program. The program collects and provides free lunch to children in low-income areas when school is not in session. In this program, students pack lunches with a variety of foods that contain all the needed vitamins and nutrients for a child to grow.
On April 3rd-4th, we made the sandwiches and packed the lunches into paper bags decorated with messages by volunteers at the YMCA. Each lunch contained a sandwich, fruit, carrots, and ranch. We loaded all the packed lunch bags and waters on to the bus to serve the meals on site. After packing the food items, we rode the bus to two separate locations. The first stop was an apartment complex at Clifton Ridge, and some of the lunches we made were dropped off there. The second stop was a townhouse apartment complex called Garden Terrace. We drove to the playground within the complex and waited for the children to come to us to receive lunch. After a while, a soccer game was also started by the volunteers and we invited the neighborhood children to play with us. The weather was nice so many of the children decided to stay after eating and play on the playground. YMCA provided balls, bubbles, hula hoops, and chalk for entertainment.
On April 2nd, Nicholas went to the YMCA at Cobb Parkway to volunteer to make sandwiches for kids. He had a great time making pile after piles of sandwiches since cooking has always been his favorite hobby. A lot of elders and teens sat around a long table and chatted quietly as they diligently worked. After enough sandwiches are made, we are to package that food up in individual brown paper bags with sides of crackers, veggies, and dipping sauces. Soon, we were separated into different teams and went to different neighborhoods.
On Friday, three members volunteered at the McCleskey YMCA to help deliver Chick-fil-A to Dwell 750, a neighborhood just near the Rio plaza. We started off the day by packaging already made chicken sandwiches, waffle chips, cookies, and sauces into paper bags and stash them into big crates. We then went with William, who is a hilarious guy, on his pickup truck. Soon, we arrived at our destination and unloaded the boxes and water and waited as kids rolled in. Chick-fil-a was a huge hit and we were diligently and busily handing out bag after bag. Since the day was cloudy with a chance of rain, we cannot play games with the children so after delivering all the food, we drove back to the Y. The experience is quite memorable, and we have met a lot of teens who are bright and humorous. We really look forward to doing projects like this again.
Attendances: Delrick Shen (6hrs), Eileen Zhang (6hrs), Larry Cai (6hrs), Emily Sun (3hrs), Nicholas Zhang (9hrs), Jiarong Wang (6hrs), David Qu (3hrs), David Kan (3hrs)
Reported by Eileen Zhang and Nicholas Zhang
