EAST ALLEN TWP, Pa. – Many of us celebrate America’s birthday with parades and maybe some fireworks, but some use the holiday to help others.<\/p>\n
Second Harvest Food Bank commemorated the nation’s two hundred and fiftieth anniversary by boxing up food donations for senior citizens in need.<\/p>\n
“We had about sixty volunteers here throughout the day, and they were all packing up senior boxes,” Nicole Folino, the food bank’s Community Services Manager, said.<\/p>\n
More than forty three thousand pounds were packed up for seniors in need.<\/p>\n
“It was a whole lot of boxes,” Sarah Wassel, Second Harvest Associate Executive Director said.<\/p>\n
“We just really killed it,\u201d Wassel said.<\/p>\n
“It was fun, we had music, we packed boxes, and they packed an amazing amount of pallets,” Omar Perez, the food bank’s Commodity Food Supplemental Program Supervisor, said.<\/p>\n
The food bank celebrated the semiquincentennial with the help of some local legislators, as Pa. State Sen. Nick Miller (D-Lehigh\/Northampton) and Pa. State Rep.Steve Samuelson (D-135) boxed up goods alongside staff and volunteers.<\/p>\n
“It’s really great when the legislators come here and see the work in action because it puts a story behind the funding that they’re fighting for,” Folino said.<\/p>\n
And still, the need never stops.<\/p>\n
“We’ve seen the need grow over the last four years substantially,” Folino said. “We’re up over fifty percent from 2022 at this point, and we serve around one hundred thousand people per month in the 6-county region that is our territory here at Second Harvest.”<\/p>\n
And that’s why one day later, the grind continues<\/p>\n
“We are always moving and shaking,” Wassel said.<\/p>\n
Volunteers on Tuesday came from different companies to get more food out.<\/p>\n
“We are serving the community,” Norma Haddad, a volunteer from JPMorgan Chase said.<\/p>\n
“My mother used to receive boxes like this. So now I have a pride to do it for all the seniors, so I love it,\u201d Haddad said.<\/p>\n
“I love it,” Ebony Powell, a volunteer from Wegmans, said.<\/p>\n
“It’s always fun, always active. Get to give back to the community,\u201d Powell added.<\/p>\n
The doors are always open to donations of both material and time.<\/p>\n
“And even if the doors are not open, we have boxes outside that you can definitely put your donations inside,” Wassel said.<\/p>\n