This is the second year Armando Flores brought his family along to package meals at Ramona Garden Park.
“When it came around this year, we thought we got to go again,” Flores said.
He brought even more family members this year to help give back to the community.
“We were just walking through the festival, and we noticed a lot of ruckus coming from this building, so we took a peek in, and we were like, that's pretty cool. They invited us in and started doing it and caught a little buzz,” Flores said.
Volunteers worked through Sunday afternoon to package food for local food banks and pantries.
Todd Huebler, a Pismo Beach Rotary Club member tells me a donation of $35 provides 83 meals.
“Food banks right now are stretched; they have less donations and less volunteers and more people need their services,” Huebler said.
Just under 50 people gathered near Ramona Garden Park to help package over 10,000 meals.
Local clubs like Pismo Beach Rotary, Grover Beach Rotary Club, the AGHS Interact Club, and the Clark Center hosted in collaboration with The Outreach Program, which fund-raised to pay for the event.
They are also working with The Outreach Project to help give back to the community.
“Food banks are seeing more people than they did pre-pandemic, but fewer donations. So the food we're donating today is going to make up for the lack of what they have to feed more people,” Chris Romero, regional event director for The Outreach Program said.
Flores hopes to carry on the tradition.
“We’re going to come back here every year we can,” Flores said.
The meals will be delivered Monday.
