DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. — It was a lively afternoon at Giant Center in Derry Township, Dauphin County as about 500 Giant food stores volunteers filed into three big tents full of food ready to be packaged and delivered to families in need.
Organizers said it couldn't come at a more critical time.
"We're having a lot of fun today, but hunger is serious," said Joe Arthur, executive director of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. "A lot of people don't realize that we are actually at levels of demand for our services that approach the peak of the pandemic."
Volunteers were divided into teams, getting to work carefully boxing up pallets of products. Each team had thirty minutes to pack 170 boxes, forming assembly lines to get the job done.
Some special guests chipped in too. The Philly Phanatic wrapped boxes in plastic and Hershey Bears Mascot Coco lent a claw.
"It is a little bit of competition element here today, but what's going in the boxes is essentials like peanut butter and tuna and soup and cereal and milk. Things that families need, those essentials to fill the gaps," said Jessica Groves, Giant's community impact manager.
It looked and sounded like chaos, but all the activity resulted in 4,500 boxes of food.
"This is actually going to provide about 112,000 meals worth of wonderful, healthy food," Arthur said.
"We donated this product, so a lot of it is own brand or Giant brand product," Groves added.
Once all the boxes were stacked and the skids filled, the food will be trucked off to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. It's on the way to veterans and their families.
"Pretty quickly these are going to go to our military share partners," Arthur said. "That's AMVETS and other military service organizations we work with. They're going to get ready to share that with people we need probably within the next week or within the next couple of days."
A sea of red t's sending life-sustaining food from pallet to pantry.
Visit the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank webpage for more information about how to get involved.