DAY OF CARING
Day of Caring has looked a little different over the years. Traditionally, teams of volunteers have spread out across the community to tackle a variety of projects for local organizations. This year, we brought everyone together for one big community project with one shared goal: helping feed our neighbors.
Introducing Day of Caring: United for Hunger
The Otsego County United Way partnered with The Outreach Program to host a community-wide meal packaging event. Throughout the day, teams of volunteers worked together to package nutritious, shelf-stable meals that will stay right here in our community to help local individuals and families facing food insecurity.
So, what does a meal packaging event actually look like?
The Outreach Program brings in all of the equipment, ingredients, and supplies and sets up meal packaging lines. Teams work assembly-line style to measure ingredients, fill and seal packages, label them, and box the finished meals. There’s music, some friendly competition, and a whole lot of teamwork as we work toward our meal goal!
It’s a different spin on Day of Caring, but the heart behind it is the same: bringing people together to make a meaningful difference in our community.
What did Day of Caring look like this year?
On Friday, September 11th, our community came together with one goal...to help feed our neighbors.
Across two volunteer shifts, our assembly lines worked like clockwork. Empty bags quickly made their way down the line as volunteers added oatmeal, soy, apple pieces and seasoning. Each package was carefully weighed, sealed, labeled and boxed.
By the end of the day, we had packaged 10,000 servings of apple cinnamon oatmeal!
These meals are fortified with essential vitamins and minerals, require only water to prepare and have a shelf life of two years.
They will help feed local families, children and neighbors in need, support the Otsego County Food Pantry and ensure we have nutritious, easy-to-prepare meals available during a future emergency or disaster.
But our day didn’t end when the final box was sealed. We brought some of the oatmeal to the Gaylord Area Community Meal Program and served breakfast for dinner.
The meals we packaged with love that morning were already feeding our community that evening.
It was a true Day of Caring.
United is the way!