MAWL's Evening of Community Service A Success

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On The Docket

M.A.W.L.'s Evening of Community Service A Success
By Elizabeth K. Steel, Esq.

On Wednesday March 23, 2005, members of M.A.W.L. volunteered at the Greater Boston Food Bank located on Atkinson Street in Boston. The Food Bank is located in a large warehouse where there are boxes of donated food stacked from floor to ceiling. They reach almost two stories high . They are waiting to be sorted and delivered to the needy in the Greater Boston area.

MAWL members who donated their time included Bridget Gassner, Carol Reiter, Barbara Senecal, Mary Healy, Deborah Habib-Shnek, Susan Neisuler, and Elizabeth Steel. First there was a lengthy and detailed training on what goods were acceptable for distribution. We learned that, for example, an open box of cereal could be donated if the interior plastic bag holding the cereal was intact. Dented canned goods were often acceptable if they were examined carefully by volunteers. Unfortunately, all donations of baby food could not be distributed because of the fear of tampering!

We then joined an assembly line of other volunteers, examining, sorting, boxing, weighing and labeling the donated items for several hours. There was everything from canned tuna and cans of soup, to bottles of barbecue sauce and jars of tomato sauce. There were boxes of cereals, juice boxes, and even a few cases of Pedro Martinez salsa! Who knew?!

In the end, along with the other volunteers (from church groups, school groups, and businesses), we sorted through 11,151 pounds of food and were able to salvage 8,921 pounds of it. The Food Bank estimated that each individual sorted 190 pounds of donated items and that each volunteer made possible 146 meals!! Everyone felt that it was a worthwhile evening spent in community service.