This semester Emma Barnett and Shannon Dague continued the five-year tradition of Truman Health Science seniors completing their capstone project as the Buddy Pack Coordinators. Working with Teresa Ross, Regional Coordinator for the Food Bank of Central and Northeast Missouri, Shannon and Emma organized five monthly packing events, and recruited 160 volunteers to pack over 1,288 bags of food each time. The Buddy Packs are delivered monthly to nine schools in eight school districts in Northeast Missouri, with weekly distribution to 322 food-insecure students in those schools.
It’s a big process that starts with cleaning and organizing the food in the warehouse each month, Packing Night jobs include working on the assembly line to place food into the bags, tying bags, stocking assembly line, opening boxes to supply to the assembly line, working on trash detail, flattening cardboard boxes, and organize Buddy Packs. Shannon and Emma supervise the entire process and double-count all the bags packed. The day after the packing, the school representatives arrive to collect the Buddy Packs for their schools. Then, they start recruiting volunteers for the next packing night
