Although we had a small group in Charlotte, we were joined by other like-minded organizations on Saturday for a very fulfilling morning that I’m sure Tyler would be proud of. We had fun, learned more about our community, helped our neighbors, and met new people.
We met at Second Harvest of Metrolina warehouse in Charlotte on Saturday morning. There were four of us from CommuniTyler, however we joined several other groups and the combined total was at least 75 volunteers strong all working together. Our job was to inspect and sort incoming food donations delivered from several local grocery stores so that they could be distributed to many smaller agencies that would ultimately deliver the food to those in need. The mission of Second Harvest is “feed hungry people by soliciting and distributing food and other grocery products through partner agencies” as well as educating the community about the nature and solutions to the problems of hunger. They are the largest hunger relief charity in the Charlotte region, supplying a network of more than 650 non-profit agencies in 19 counties with food and other essential items.
We started off the morning with some bagels and coffee in the warehouse parking lot. After an energizer, safety brief and training by the staff at Second Harvest, we made quick work of several pallets of food donations. Working hard and meeting new people we worked, learning about why they were there and sharing our story of CommuniTyler, the morning passed quickly and before we knew it, it was lunch time and our shift was over.
It was a very fun event and we look forward to doing it again next year.
-Bill Farley
View past CommuniTyler events in Charlotte: 2014, 2013, 2012
