The FPCLA Food Bank is always looking for regular volunteers to help serve at the food bank. This includes multiple day options since the food bank packs on Sunday mornings (conveniently just before the FPCLA afternoon service) and distributes the bags to the community on Monday mornings.
My wife, Bella, and I first started attending the FPCLA food bank several months back. I had first been told of the service opportunity a while before that but, like most things in life, it took some time for me to get around to get myself committed to serving there. Once Bella and I showed up, we were in for a pleasant surprise.
Bella and I received a warm welcome from many friendly faces there which we did not recognize. What I became aware of in this moment of cheerful introductions by Pastor Sam and his wife Lisa is that this food bank is not just a FPCLA operation. This food bank involves a cooperative effort across multiple churches hosted at the 300 S Western Ave Wilshire Presbyterian Church. The room is filled front to back with bags and supplies and busy bees. Each person works on their task at hand in assembling the bags full of a well balanced diet yet everyone is working towards the common good end goal of helping those in need in our community.
We quickly got to work with little training needed for such simple tasks. In another situation I would be underwhelmed at endlessly packing bags of food but, knowing it was for such a good cause and feeling that shared energy in the room creates a deep enjoyment and satisfaction that makes the work go by quickly and become anything but mundane.
Before we knew it, the lead pastor called it a wrap and we had packed several hundred bags for distribution on the following day. Bella and I happily discussed how we felt about the whole ordeal in the car ride home that afternoon. We both thoroughly enjoyed the experience and we have since made it our regular Sunday morning routine. I am so glad that we have found this way to directly serve our community in such a tangible way.
If you or someone you know would be interested in serving at the FPCLA Food Bank, then please feel free to reach out to us for further details. We would greatly appreciate any regular volunteer work from dependable people.
