On August 27th, the AYLUS Raritan Valley Branch made their second visit to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey in Hillside, NJ.
Following the success and positive reception of the previous visit, food bank workers and volunteers alike were eager to work with each other again. However, with the start of school quickly approaching, many students would not be able to afford the time for weekly visits, as they would be swamped in schoolwork and extracurriculars.
But this would not deter the branch members. With an abundance of volunteers and a helping of determination, AYLUS more than made up for its monthly visits with its efficiency. In fact, what regular weekly volunteers got done in a week, the branch was able to do 3x as much in a single session, making the most of each visit to have as large of an impact as possible.
So what exactly did the students do? As it turns out, every visit to the food bank would pose a different task- last time, it was packing boxes, and this time, it was scooping and bagging pasta. Students encountered a variety of obstacles at the beginning- for example, how was it possible to fit 16 bags of pasta inside a box no more than a foot long? But with generous guidance from the workers there, volunteers soon became professional pasta packers.
By the end of the session, AYLUS members had packed over a thousand pasta bags. Once again, the goal had been far surpassed, and volunteers were left with the glowing sense of triumph that kept them returning for more and more visits.
The Raritan Valley Branch now looks forward to the next visit, during the holiday season. Demand will surely be high- but so will the spirit of generosity.
Reported by: Amy Xu
Activity Lead: Vivian Sun (4 hours), Dalina Cao(3 hours)
Participants: (2.5 hours for all)
Amy Xu, Dylan Ing, Allen Gao, Grace Hu, Ethan Zhou, Same Altman, Hannah Altman, Jason Liu(3.5), Kevin Xu
