Our Packing Process: What We Pack in Our Boxes

We pack anywhere from twenty to sixty boxes per week, based on where we are delivering to. We start by assembling all of our boxes, and we place them on a platform that allows us to move them easily. As a few volunteers assemble the boxes, the other volunteers go to shop in the store for nonprofits at the food bank. 

We try pick food that will go together in a meal. For example, if we decide to put pasta into our boxes, we will add tomato sauce. We acquire most of our breads, pastas, tortillas, and snacks from the nonprofit store. However, we are sometimes able to sort though bins and acquire cans for free that we can pack into our boxes. These include beans, canned fruit, pasta sauce, and peanut butter. We try to pack both ingredients for meals and snacks. We sometimes put bags with bars, fruit snacks, and crackers in our boxes for some snack options. If we are able to find water bottles, we try to put at least two in a box. Occasionally, we will go into the produce section and collect bags of fruits and vegetables to give to our customers along with the boxes. 

After we are done packing the food, we tape the boxes and provide a paper that says when our next delivery date will be. We then stick the label with our logo on our boxes, put the boxes on carts, and bring them out to our cars. From there, each car goes to where it needs to deliver its boxes.

Every time we complete this process, we learn something new, and try to perfect our packing process further, so that it can run as smooth as possible. We always make sure to try to protect our customers as much as possible by frequently sanitizing our hands, wearing masks, and wearing gloves during our delivery process. I am excited I was able to share our packing experience with you,and show the work that we are doing to make a difference.