July 16, 2018, six members of the East Cobb Branch of AYLUS packed lunches at Bella Grand, Clifton Ridge and Garden Terrace for the YMCA Summer Lunch Outreach Program. The program’s goal is to pack and give lunches to kids from underprivileged families. Volunteers pack lunches and talk/play with the kids.
Today, each lunch contained a bag of broccoli, carrots, oranges, a case of the ranch, and milk. Packing lunches take a lot of teamwork, as all the volunteers must work together to be efficient.
Because each location doesn’t need many volunteers, the members were split up into three locations.
The members at Garden Terrace weren’t met with much: The location was a relatively new one for the program, so not many people came. In the end, the leftover items were donated to a large family.
Members at Belle Grand were busy and gave out 35 lunches.
Lunch Packing at Clifton Ridge was very successful. Members gave out around 50 lunches to the children and adults.
On the 17th, three volunteers were assigned to Clifton Ridge, which has a larger number of families who were cognizant of the program compared to other locations. As expected, many people showed up to get lunches. The members gave out around 30 lunches.
On the 18th, four members participated in the Lunch Program. Two were assigned to Dwell, and two to Clifton Ridge. Overall, at least 40 lunches were given out on the 18th.
On the 19th two members went to the View 75 apartment complex to serve lunches to families. In total, 35 lunches were served.
On the 20th, four volunteers were split yet again into Garden Terrace and Bella Grand to pack lunches. Overall, 28 lunches were given out, and the rest were donated to a large family.
Our volunteers enjoy packing the lunches because the lunches are of good use to others. Knowing that the time and energy that they spend is greatly appreciated, the volunteers always look forward to the next time.
Members who participated were: Cynthia Ruan (6 hours), Maxwell Jiang (2 hour), Susanna Huang (4 hours), Kevin Shen (6 hours), Jiarong (Jonathan) Wang (6 hours), Jay Pan (8 hours), Nick Vincent (2 hours), Selina Huang (4 hours).
Reported by Susanna Huang, Jay Pan, Jonathan Wang, Kevin Shen, and Selina Huang. Edited by Michael Fu.