By Mariana Gay

Junior League of Boston Community Impact volunteers at the Greater Boston Food Bank

It’s always a rewarding experience to interact with our Junior League partners in the community.  I recently discovered a great way to volunteer outside of my own placement with the Community Impact Council. This council provides members volunteer opportunities with numerous organizations at a wide range of non-profit events in the Boston area.

Community partners include: Cradles, Room to Grow, March of Dimes, The Breast Cancer Foundation, The Women’s Lunch Place, Dress for Success and Strong Women, Strong Girls and many others.

One of those “many others” is the Greater Boston Food Bank, where I joined a group of council members for an afternoon shift. The size of the building should be an indication  of the impact the food bank has not only in Massachusetts but also across the US, providing food items to areas impacted by the recent hurricanes.

During our shift, we learned how to sort out donated items and alongside several other volunteer groups, sorted through 7,705 pounds of donated food items.This is the equivalent of 5,550 meals and it only took three hours of my Saturday.

Seeing the pallets of sorted boxes and hearing these final statistics re-energized me and reaffirmed how important it is to take the time our of our busy schedules to volunteer.

Thank you to the Community Impact Council for providing events like this – it may just become my new Saturday trend.