With crates of dried pasta in hand, the Palm Beach County Food Bank was welcomed by a sea of blue-shirted Breakers employees at the resort’s Venetian Ballroom on Oct. 22.
Those 144 volunteers were there ready to scoop, measure, seal and pack thousands of portions of pasta as part of the food bank’s Day of 100K Meals packing event.
The fourth collaborative meal packing event between the organization, the pasta packaged during the day-long event will be distributed to the food bank’s 200 partner agencies to feed the thousands of county residents suffering from hunger, said Andrea Rendon, the food bank’s marketing and communications manager.
Roughly 173,000 county residents struggle to find their next meal, with one in every six children suffering from hunger, Rendon noted. But she said recent national political events have appeared to have increased the number of residents suffering from food insecurity.
For instance, she said the continuing federal government shutdown has impeded the operations of some of the food banks partnered with local agencies that are staffed by federal employees. That’s on top of the food insecurity local federal employees may soon experience now that they’re not receiving their wages, she said.
Volunteers who are employees of The Breakers pack elbow pasta for the Palm Beach County Food Bank in the Venetian Ballroom at The Breakers Palm Beach on Oct. 22.
She also noted the chilling effect the national crackdown on immigration has had on reducing the number of area residents who have applied for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other government assistance programs.
“They’re a lot of locals that are misinformed about what their status is and what that means for them,” Rendon said.
Those impacts have yet to be captured in the county or the food bank statistics due to their recency, she said.
That’s why these events are valuable, as it will give an influx of food the food bank itself couldn’t pack in a day, Rendon told the Palm Beach Daily News.
The food bank said it expected the 144 volunteers, divided into a morning shift and an afternoon shift, to pack well over the 100,000 meal goal.
Those volunteer spots filled up just a week and half after the resort released the signup sheet, said the resort’s social impact manager Julia McMahon.
Volunteers included Regina Froot, executive assistant and member of the resort’s community relations team. Having joined all three meal packing events hosted at the resort, she said to exemplifies “a hands-on way to make an immediate, tangible impact to those facing food insecurity right here in our community.”
Stacy-ann Clack, a volunteer and employee of The Breakers helps packs food in the Venetian Ballroom at The Breakers Palm Beach on Oct. 22.
As a Community Relations Team member, Froot said she tries to support the volunteers however possible, whether it’s ensuring they’re stocked up on water and supplies or jumping to cover another volunteer’s position.
Froot said her favorite station on the assembly line was sealing the bags, a process she called much more challenging than it looks.
Not only is the event a great opportunity to team builds with fellow members of the Breakers team, it’s also a representation of the resort’s central principle, community service, she said.
Community service “instills a strong sense of purpose, strengthens connections among colleagues, and reflects a genuine commitment to making a difference both within the company and through the broader community,” Froot said. “Our culture of care and outreach inspires us to give back, making our workplace deeply fulfilling.”
For more information about Palm Beach County Food Bank services and volunteering opportunities, visit pbcfoodbank.org.
Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Breakers host Palm Beach County Food Bank ‘Day of 100,000 Meals’
