Dec 30, Jan 2/3, East Cobb Branch “Give A Hand” Winter Break Lunch Program
During the week of December 30, 2019, members of East Cobb Branch participated in 3-days YMCA School Break Lunch Program.
The program’s goal is to serve meals to children (who normally got meals at school) over winter break. It needs many volunteers to help deliver and serve lunches to local kids. Without the program, 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 Monday, December 30th, 2 members of the East Cobb Branch went to the YMCA to pack lunches consisting of a snack, sandwich, and serving of fruit. These lunches are designed to help the children meet their daily nutritional needs. Once all the lunches were packed, the volunteers went to the sites to give out the meals. This day was also special though. Along with the normal meals, the children at Clifton Ridge received gifts tailored to their age also packed at the YMCA. These gifts brought boundless fields of smiles as the children lined up to receive the colorfully wrapped gifts. In the end, all the children were given gifts and many were given extras to carry back to their cousins, sisters, friends, and other important people in their lives. It was a great experience to see the children so happy that day.
On Thursday, January 2nd, 2 members of the East Cobb Branch went to Clifton Ridge to pack lunches. Chick-Fil-A had graciously prepared meals for the kids on that day. This meant that meal assembly was greatly expedited, which was greatly appreciated as rain poured onto the site. Despite this rain causing some of the bags to become soaked and discouraging too many people from arriving, the volunteers engineered various solutions to keep the bags dry, sandwiches warm, and reuse ruined bags. Soon all the lunches were handed out and the volunteers rushed back to their vehicles to get out of the rain.
On Thursday, another two members of the East Cobb Branch of AYLUS went to Hillcrest and handed out about 175 lunches for 2 hours. At Hillcrest, only some of the children came to pick up the lunches because it was raining outside. Instead of putting up a table and having the children form a line, the volunteers handed out lunches from the back of the truck.
On Friday, January 3rd, 4 members of the East Cobb Branch went to Clifton Ridge to pack lunches. Chick-Fil-A had once again provided lunches, so the volunteers didn’t have to pack them. The lunches went quickly and soon they were all gone. This caught us all by surprise and one volunteer remarked that maybe Chick-Fil-A sandwiches encouraged more kids to show up than the normal meals. With this final lunch packing event, the YMCA and volunteers finished their winter break packing and school could once more provide lunches.
Attendance: Cynthia Ruan (2 hrs), Delrich Shen (2 hrs), Diane Chen (2 hrs), Eileen Zhang (5 hrs), Jay Pan (4 hrs), Maxwell Jiang (7 hrs)
Reported by Maxwell Jiang, Eileen Zhang
