I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into when I agreed to help the Southern Hills United Methodist Church youth group pack lunches for Arlington Elementary students. (You may remember last week that I worked with Common Good's after school program for students that mainly attend this school-great group of kids!) I imagined it would be a few of us shooting the breeze, chatting about our days, and carefully bagging some PB&J's and carrot sticks into a few handfuls of brown bags.
No, sir! This was a little bit bigger of an assignment.
No, sir! This was a little bit bigger of an assignment.
Brian Shumard, the church's Youth Pastor, asked me to be here at 6 and let me know that they might be a bit short-handed, so he said I could bring one to, oh, 5 extra people. Hmm, must be a lot of sammies that we needed to make.
I sent out a battle cry and was able to recruit some awesome last-minute help. Casey Yohe (she is now an all-star after coming to 3 events after I recruited her from the PCAK 5k!) and her boyfriend Keith Vanderoef came out, and Tammy Bishop - a wonderful new friend of mine that you may recognize from her family's brewery, Ethereal Brewing.
We arrived at Embrace Church (across the street from Arlington) and this is what I walked into. This was more than a few school lunches!
As it turns out, Southern Hills gets together every 2 weeks on Tuesday at 6:00 PM here and packs lunches for 300 students for 2 weeks. Did you do the math? That's right, folks. They put together 600 lunches total each time. That is 1200 a month!.... which means.... let me get the iPhone out... 14,400 meals a year.
Wow. Do you know what 14,400 looks like??
Wow. Do you know what 14,400 looks like??
Me either. I even asked Google. It said, "I've completely failed at finding a fitting picture to help you visualize this because that's just a ridiculous number."
So once we got all of us organized on either side, the speedy assembly line began! Within an hour we got through all 600 lunches and had them packed in plastic totes for delivery.
So who delivers them, then? Well, the church! Using the church van, we loaded up all of the totes (I didn't get a good picture or count of these--rats!) and took them to the school, where they were offloaded into the hallway for students in the coming 2 weeks.
It amazes me how little time and effort it took to affect this many children. Of course, there is fundraising by the church and a fun Sam's bulk shopping trip (or twenty) involved for these assemblies, but look at the impact they are making! Combined with the Common Good after school program at Embrace where a full dinner is provided for kids, I can't even fathom the impact that these organizations are making on these neighborhoods. I only wish more people were aware of these projects and could help!
Well, I Do Want to Help. How Can I?
Anyone interested in helping with bagging lunches at Embrace Church with Southern Hills Youth can reach out to Lyn Bracken at [email protected].
My earlier post and spotlight on Common Good can guide you on their program and how you can help!