Seen in photo above, Peer & Fehrs employee volunteers (row1, l to r) Diwu Zhou, Kevin Johnson, Clara Wong, Chelsea Caldetera (team leader), Jane Bierstedt, Lorna Angeles, Delia Votsch; row 2, l to r) Jennifer Zierbarth, Jack Zhang, Abhishek Mishra, Ryan McClain, Meghan Mitman and Julie Morgan brightened Thanksgiving for families in crisis by assembling and boxing food for 60 families in our community.
Established in 2012, Assistance League of Diablo Valley’s Community Programs includes seven programs that meet a range of community needs. Food Boxes, chaired by Carol Parkhurst, is one of these programs. In preparing for Thanksgiving, Food Boxes Committee members selected such nutritious items as canned hams, tamales, green beans, canned yams, canned pumpkin, turkeys, turkey stuffing and gravy, instant mashed potatoes, canned pineapple chunks, peanut butter, jelly, pancake mix and cereal. Everyday needs such as laundry detergent, dish soap, toothpaste and bath soap completed the inventory. Once delivered to the Assistance League facility in Walnut Creek, its large conference room became an assembly line workplace.
The next phase involved the organization’s Corporate Partners Program, which enlists hands-on and financial help from members of the business and civic communities. On November 17, Corporate Partners Committee Chairman Linda Mercer welcomed 13 employee volunteers from Fehr & Peers, a Walnut Creek-based corporation that specializes in transportation planning and engineering. Following an overview concerning the chapter’s ten philanthropic programs, volunteers methodically broke down cartons and assembled and filled 60 boxes with the above mentioned items in record time. Bottom Line: Assistance League of Diablo Valley’s Community Programs Food Boxes, with the help of corporate partners from Fehr & Peers, several of them returnees, continued to put “Caring and Commitment into Action.”
The third phase, distribution, engaged the Contra Costa County Service Integration Program that, with the help of CAL WORKS, delivered 30 filled boxes to both Richmond and Bay Point Family Service Centers, a mere 30 minutes from Walnut Creek. The entire process went beyond providing meals to give thanks. While the food obviously abated hunger, it celebrated a community awareness and support that nurtured at a deeper level.
To learn more about the Corporate Partners Program and the hands-on philanthropic programs primarily funded by the Assistance League Way Side Inn Thrift Shop in Lafayette, please visit the website: diablovalley.assistanceleague.org.
