A Very ThankFULL Bag! WE-Bay Area Assembles Holiday Dinner-in-a-Bag for 250 Seniors
Posted on December 8, 2011 by Silvia Ashmore — Leave a Comment
Jessie Wong, Sr. Account Executive, WE-San Francisco
Waggener Edstrom’s San Francisco office kicked off their holiday giving by bagging 250 Thanksgiving dinners for Groceries for Seniors at Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral as part of WE’s Make a Difference Day (WMDD) program. A team of 10 volunteers - Lisa Allen, Kelsey Grossman, Nadine Haija, Adrienne Refsgaard, Mallory Richards, Jean-Louis Robadey, Oona Rokyta, Darlene Scheurich, Monique Singh and Jessie Wong – spent the morning of November 21 packing grocery bags to the brim.
Everything but the BIRD
What went into a bag? 6-8 potatoes, 1 bag rice, 1 can peas, 1 can cranberry sauce, 2 gigantic onions (the size of extra-large grapefruit!), 8 oranges, grapes, 1 head lettuce, 6-8 carrots, 2-3 sweet potatoes, 2 cans corn, 1 can Chinese beans, 2-3 bell peppers, 1 celery head, 2 bread bags, 40 oz. can green tea, misc. fruits and veggies, and for dessert…1 package Girl Scout cookies. [ The bird was delivered seperately].
How did you STUFF it?
“It’s like trying to fit ten pounds of potatoes into a five pound bag!” commented one of our volunteers. Yep, it wasn’t always easy, but it was done with a collective smile. In the end, as if by a miracle (and a lot of shaking, settling and finagling), all the “stuffing” for each meal fit into a single grocery bag (double bagged for the heavy load). “
Home delivery
The groceries were loaded up into a van, which set out to hand-deliver the bags and chickens to recipients that very morning. Every day, the organization utilizes volunteers to pack up and deliver free groceries to seniors in need. We all felt grateful to be able to donate our time and energy to such an important cause, particularly at this time of year.
In addition to volunteering their time, the team also delivered a $500 check to Groceries for Seniors.
About Groceries for Seniors
Operating out of the donated basement space in Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Groceries for Seniors provides food that seniors need to stay healthy and remain living independently in the community. The program provides nearly 1,200 seniors with a free bag of groceries every week. In a city that is home to more than 27,000 seniors with income below the federal poverty line, where seniors are often forced to choose between purchasing food or medicine, the organization is truly making a difference in each recipient’s lives. The organization operates with just one staff member and a roster of dedicated volunteers, rescuing food that would have been thrown away by local supermarkets, and receives other food items from the San Francisco Food Bank.
Old Saint Mary’s is located at the intersection of Chinatown and the financial district, was built in 1854 as the first cathedral of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Old St. Mary’s survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, only to be gutted a day later by the fires started by the earthquake. The fires were so hot that they melted the church bells and marble altar.
We look forward to our office’s next WDMM and hope that your holiday season is full of cheerful events and giving spirits!
