During the week of (05/28th/2019), 8 members of East Cobb Branch participated in the YMCA Lunch Packing Program.
The program’s goal is to serve over 300 children each day over school breaks. It needs many volunteers to help deliver and serve lunches to local kids. These children may not be able to have a healthy meal when school is out. The program also inspires volunteers to communicate with the children.
On Tuesday, 2 members went to The Dwell and packed about 50 lunches. On that day, large amounts of kids came to pick up the lunches and most sat and ate with their peers. The members organized the kids and set up the tables.
On Wednesday, 2 members went to The Gallery and packed about 5 lunches since no one was there. Despite the small number of children, the volunteers were able to spend time with the kids. We set up the food table and at the end, a little boy came and the volunteers read him books. 4 other members went to another location.
On Thursday, 1 member went to The Dwell and packed about 35 lunches. On that day, a good amount of kids came to pick up the lunches. Many of the kids rushed to pick up the lunches seeing that slushies were given to the children. The YMCA staff and volunteers set up tables, packed lunches, and cleaned up.
On Friday, 2 members went to The Dwell and packed about 30 lunches. On that day, a good amount of kids came to pick up the lunches. We helped with setting up lunch, giving the lunch, preparing paper work and cleaning up. 3 members went to the other 2 locations.
Our members participated in the whole process of the program by actively helping out to set up tables and organizing the kids into lines as they come and pick up the lunches. We also packed most of the lunches. The volunteers feel extremely accomplished and proud that they were able to contribute to the community and they had a great time with the staff and the kids.
Attendance: Nicholas Zhixing Zhang (10 hours), Diane Chen (7.5hours), David Qu (2.5hours), Emily Yang (5hours), Brian Kuang (2.5 hours), Eileen Zhang (2.5 hours), Adit Jain (2.5 hours), Saloni Jain (2.5hours)
Reported by Nicholas Zhixing Zhang
