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MAKING SACK LUNCHES
HAVING FUN
SERVING THOSE IN NEED
From 9:00 am until noon – Mondays through Fridays – St. Vincent de Paul’s Holy Family Community Center’s sack lunch prep room is a swirl of activity. Each morning, groups of between 4 and 8 volunteers arrive and prepare upwards of 200 sack lunches, all of which are given out to our homeless neighbors who stop by Holy Family or distributed to other neighbors in need who live in low-income housing, primarily on the eastern edge of Omaha.
Making and bagging sandwiches, repacking “salties” (e.g. potato chips, pretzels, etc) and various “sweets” into smaller, single-size serving bags and readying bottled water near our yellow, “Sack Lunch Door”, these committed volunteers not only provide this important service to hungry, food-insecure individuals and families from our community – they also have a great time in the process.
So…who exactly are these volunteers that dutifully show up to provide this service? Each day, a different group is scheduled, and some mornings have volunteers who have been together for quite some time.
Our Wednesday cohort of volunteers is one of the longest-serving sack lunch groups at SSVP – and they’re also very good friends. Volunteering together for around three years, Wednesday’s self-proclaimed sack-lunch-making “A-Team” is comprised of Cathie Adams, Mary Lynn Focht, Mary Elbert and Char Thiessen (pictured, left to right). Husband and wife – Tara and Dale Kaisershot – as well as Dan Donahoe are also part of the Wednesday volunteer group, although were unavailable on the day the photo was taken.
While observing this group, it’s easy to see that they all get along with each other. Shares Mary Lynn Focht: “We talk, we laugh, we pray…and we have a lot of fun." Cathie Adams chimes in: “We also like to meet outside of Holy Family, socially. We sometimes will go to lunch. We really enjoy each other’s company. The camaraderie we share is what makes volunteering such a special time.” Continues Char Thiessen: “We also just love the Holy Family building. Before volunteering here, I used to walk past the church and was so intrigued by it.” Mary Elbert finishes that thought: “I used to attend church here while it was a functioning parish. I have such great memories, which makes volunteering here even extra special.”
Whatever the motivation for volunteering that each sack lunch “A-Team” member brings, these Wednesday morning friends clearly remember the importance of their work. Mary Lynn Focht provides the group’s final observation: “Of course we know that what we do here helps provide food for people who are truly in need. We love volunteering together for a lot of reasons, although ultimately it’s because it makes a difference to the very nice people who benefit from the sack lunches we make each day.”
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