In one morning, Up With People Alumni and Friends joined other organizations sorting an incredible 21,000+ pounds of food for the Greater Boston Food Bank. (L-R, Dan, Paula, Jay, Jeff, Paul and Scott)

Service Project: Greater Boston Food Bank

Date: Saturday May 10, 2003

Special thanks to Dan, Paula, Paul, Jeff and Jay for an amazing morning at the Greater Boston Food Bank.

View the stats below to see that each volunteer personally made 160 meals available for local people in need.

Facts: May 10, 2003 - Morning Shift
Number of Volunteers in Shift	81
Total Pounds of Food Sorted	21,092
Total Pounds of Food Salvaged (80%)	16, 874
Pounds of Food Sorted per volunteer:	208
Meals made possible per volunteer:	160

L-R: Dan, Paula, Paul, Jeff and Jay all took various roles from sorting, checking, quality control and labeling during the hectic, fast-paced and exciting three hour shift.

The Greater Boston Food Bank's website says:

"Volunteers at The Greater Boston Food Bank are making a difference every day. Through their efforts, The Food Bank helps provide 900,000 meals per month to approximately 236,000 people throughout eastern Massachusetts. The Greater Boston Food Bank would simply not be able to feed those in need without the over 37,250 hours its 10,000 volunteers donate every year. Volunteers include students, seniors, businesspeople, church members, and others all getting together to feed the hungry."

The Greater Boston Food Bank's website also states that

• The Greater Boston Food Bank opened its doors in 1979 as the Boston Food Pantry. It became the Boston Food Bank in 1981 and The Greater Boston Food Bank, Inc. (The Food Bank) in 1993. Founder Kip Tiernan never dreamed that The Food Bank would grow to it's current size (in terms of pounds distributed) as a response to such a large rise in demand.
  
  
• Serving as a non-profit clearinghouse for food donated by the private sector to help those who are hungry, The Food Bank is New England's largest hunger relief program.
  
  
• The Food Bank annually distributes nearly 20 million pounds of food, for a total wholesale value of over $41 million. The food is distributed to a network of more than 800 member feeding programs (including soup kitchens, food pantries and homeless shelters) throughout the nine counties in eastern Massachusetts.
  
  
• Through its network of member feeding programs, The Food Bank helps to feed 1.25 million meals each month.
  
  
• The Food Bank serves approximately 70 percent of those in need in Massachusetts.
  
  
• The food donated to The Food Bank comes from over 500 supermarkets, wholesalers, manufacturers, caterers, restaurants and community food drives. The primary donors include three major food retailers; Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, Star Market Company, and Shaw's Supermarkets, Inc.
  
  
• The Food Bank receives financial support from hundreds of organizations, corporations, foundations and individuals. Member feeding programs share in the partnership costs of running The Food Bank through "shared maintenance contributions."
  
  
• A network of more than 10,500 community volunteers donates in excess of 38,500 hours annually to The Food Bank.
  

Did you know that the Up With People Alumni club is recognized on the Greater Boston Food Bank website for volunteering in the past? Check it out.