We didn’t know each other before, but now we share a common goal of doing something to help those in need in our community, and having fun doing it.
Known as the Fabulous Food Packers, they meet one night a month to pack boxes of food at the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank’s Williamsport hub. No one is sure when the group first began banding together around this goal. They’ve been doing this for eight years, and some say the group has been there as long as they’ve been there, but it’s the consistent dedication to the work that’s more important than the length of time.
On the first Tuesday of every month, this group of food packers, sometimes 15 people, sometimes more, meet to fill boxes of food to distribute to seniors, veterans or other people in the community who need healthy food.
Each person seems to have chosen a job suited to their abilities. Some people assemble the boxes, others keep materials on hand for those who fill them with food. The speed with which they work makes it clear that they enjoy each other’s company, and the work they do. This is a labor of love.
“There’s really no assigned mission or anything like that,” said Rick Mason, a longtime member of the group.
“I’ve been doing this for probably eight or nine years now. Assembling the boxes is my specialty so I can do it pretty quickly. Usually my friend Carl Barlett puts the boxes together and the other gang members fill them,” Mason said.
The goal for the night is to fill 320 boxes for seniors within the two hours the group is working, and Mason said one night they filled 1,000 boxes, but the group was outnumbered by the dozen or so people working that time.
Seeing the camaraderie among the packers, it would be easy to assume that, except for married couples, they spend more than two hours a month together, but Mason said that’s not the case.
“We just come here. We have a great group of volunteers. The same people come every month. And it’s just a fun group of people. We’re not serious people, but it’s a lot of fun,” he said.
Many of the group’s members attend monthly, and some drop in regularly to help out. They may have found out about the organization through the Fabulous Food Packers Facebook page, which has about 150 followers, or they may have called the food bank to ask if they could help.
“This is a very loose, community-oriented group of volunteers. I’ve never met a mean Fabulous Food Packer before,” Mason said.
Like Mason, most of the group are retired, but some still show up to help pack up after work.
“I’ve been retired for 10 years this week and community service remains one of my passions,” Mason said.
“There are a lot of nonprofits and charities that I’m involved with from time to time,” he said, pausing in conversation to greet another food packer with a hug as he walked in. The friendship that had developed between the two was clear.
“These are great people, we come together, it’s just a small thing for the community, but it makes you feel good and you know you’re helping people in need, it’s just giving a little back to the community,” Mason said.
“It’s true,” said Cheryl Allison, another member of the Fabulous Food Packers, “and we get to meet such amazing people.”
“Everybody comes here and everybody’s just happy and they just want to help and they can go to work and we tell stories and when we pack up the boxes they say we’ve packed 86 boxes and everybody cheers heartily,” Allison said.
She and her husband moved to the area after retirement and wanted to get involved in the community.
“A friend encouraged us to come and volunteer at the food bank and we’ve been here ever since. We’ve been here for eight years now and we absolutely love it, so giving back is just heartwarming to know that we’re doing something for the community,” Allison said.
“Helping the community fills our hearts and brings us joy,” she added.
Another member, Connie Dawes, actually started volunteering at food banks with another group and then became involved with Fabulous Food Packers during COVID-19.
“They posted on Facebook that they were looking for more help, so I stepped in and we’ve been working together ever since,” Dawes said.
Dawes also thinks about the people who will benefit from the boxes they fill, especially those for seniors.
“My parents would be so happy, really. But they’ve been away for a while. I think they’d be so happy,” Dawes said.
Dawes, whose normal job is supplying canned goods and other supplies to packers, noted that everyone in the group helps each other out.
“Whenever they see that something needs to be done, whoever sees it just does it. They don’t have to tell someone to do something, they just do it,” she explained.
They are one of the more prominent packing groups at the food bank, but because of their longevity they are not the only ones who come packing at any one time.
“We actually just had an open house and awards ceremony here about a month ago, and we had six groups that came out that have been working with us for a combined five or more years,” said Grant Fillman, the food bank’s volunteer project coordinator.
“We do have a significant amount, but we always need more. The demand is growing every day in the region. We are distributing more food now than during the pandemic, so there will always be a demand. There will always be work to be done here. We can’t do it alone. The labor hours would be astronomical if we were to pack all those boxes,” he added.
He noted that the Williamsport location alone distributes 2,400 boxes a month for seniors like the one the packers were working on that night. The food bank’s Harrisburg location delivers about 4,000 a month.
“This is just one of the boxes we’re making. We’re also making a combination of three others,” Fillman said.
Anyone interested in joining the Fabulous Food Packers in their efforts at the food bank can connect with them on their Facebook page or contact the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank Williamsport hub for volunteer information.
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