One of the great things about working in the social services sector is knowing that your work helps people. An even greater thing is being around people who volunteer their time in service to others. If you can’t draw inspiration from that, well, you’re probably in the wrong line of work.

Last Wednesday, NNEMAP Food Pantry was the beneficiary of some seriously community minded second graders from Grandview’s Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School. The four second-grade classes gathered up over 500 dental-care products for distribution to NNEMAP Food Pantry families. It was like a Treasure Island of toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash and floss! Look at these fantastic foragers of outstanding oral healthcare items:

Each of the classroom teachers used the project as another kind of “teachable moment”–counting up all of the different items, working on addition to add up the total and creating graphs to show the sums in visual form. Great lesson on so many levels. Thanks to these Bobcats (or Bob…kittens?!?) for their generous spirit–and their amazing math skills!

We’re not going to lie–it was tough to top Wednesday’s foray into the heart of Grandview–but Thursday’s volunteer group made it as close to a dead heat as you can get. NNEMAP Food Pantry is closed for business on Thursdays, but we are open for deliveries. Specifically fresh produce–we get about 6,000 pounds every Thursday morning. Without some volunteer help, it can make for some long and backbreaking days for the paid staff.

It’s not easy work, and you have to be willing to get your hands dirty. Who better to come to the rescue than this crew:

Yep, that’s right, we brought in the heavy hitters. That’s a group of AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers who are currently posted with our local Habitat for Humanity branch. In just a few short hours, this gang for the good sorted, stocked and otherwise helped store four huge pallets of fresh produce.

They also helped prep for Friday’s delivery of dry goods, got our shopping carts loaded up and ready for Friday, restocked and organized our kids’ bookshelf and probably did 10 other things that were amazing. It was an incredibly productive morning with a great group of people. 

It was pretty inspiring, so we must be in the right line of work!

Our sincere thanks to the spectacular second graders from Grandview Heights and the stellar, hard-working crew from Habitat for Humanity for all of the help last week. It was truly a pleasure working with you all!

***

If you are looking for a service project for your school or a volunteer opportunity for your company, look no further! NNEMAP Food Pantry has a variety of options and would love to work with you!!! For additional information visit our VOLUNTEER page or contact Assistant Director Sean Becker via e-mail at sean@nnemappantry.org today!