By Tim Doherty ‘23- SJR Media Club
On March 22, 2022, I was a part of a group of twenty-eight juniors who went to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey in Hillside, NJ. We were accompanied by Deacon Joe, Mr. Bruno '05, and Mr. Odierno '93 and tasked with folding boxes, packing up gallons and bottles of water, and then weighing and marking the boxes (each one totaling between forty-three and fifty pounds).
When it was all said and done, 336 boxes and roughly 15,000 pounds of water were packed and ready to be shipped out. Deacon Joe said, “I have never been so proud of a group of volunteers like I was at the Community Food Bank.”
Many valuable lessons were shared with the SJR students in attendance throughout this experience. The Community Food Bank staff member who led the project asked us to think about what our lives would be like if we were on the “other side” of the boxes. It helped us to realize how fortunate we truly are.
Even if we are going through a challenging time in our lives, someone out there has things worse. We were also able to see and appreciate the amount of work that the Community Food Bank employees do. We were tired after two hours of work, but Community Food Bank employees do that every single day, for several hours. It was an eye opening service trip and SJR plans on bringing back another group of juniors on April 6.