Nearly 400 volunteers worked to collect, unload, weigh, sort and package food donations.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Long Beach, Signal Hill, Lakewood, Los Alamitos and Seal Beach collected over 10 tons of food on Saturday, April 25.
“Donations from the generous citizens of each of these cities far exceeded our expectations and will feed the needy in our communities for a very long time,” said Tom Ahlstrom, a church leader who oversees seven local congregations.
The day started early with church members picking up donations from the doorsteps of those who had received one of the 10,000 bags distributed earlier in the week.
All donations were then brought to the St. Isidore Family Service Center in Los Alamitos for sorting and packaging before they were redistributed to the food pantries in need.
Nearly 400 church members worked from 9am to 3pm unloading the bags and then weighing, sorting and packaging them.
“I’ve never seen such a beehive of activity among a large group of volunteers happy and willing to give up their Saturday for the good of our communities,” said project coordinator Stacey Tate. “It was truly inspiring.”
The three organizations who benefited from this effort were Project Shepherd in Lakewood, Centro Shalom in Long Beach and We Care in Los Alamitos.
“We certainly appreciate the many generous community members who gave food to help their neighbors,” said Mike Johnston, Lakewood Rotary Club member and Project Shepherd Chairman.
“At Centro Shalom, we strive to provide for anyone who has need, and Project Pantry will help us immediately,” said Amelia Nieto, executive director of Centro Shalom.
Marty Thompson, executive director of We Care said: “In these hard times, it’s a joy to see the community come together to help the less fortunate.”
Plans are underway to repeat this effort next April when it is hoped that even more can be collected for those who are down on their luck and need assistance.
