FRESH FOOD — Environment, safety and health coordinator Kara Komula, front, was one of 15 volunteers who helped plant a variety of vegetables at the Rio Grande Food Project on April 23. The organization uses the urban garden to help educate the community about growing their own food. (Photo by Meagan Brace)
As part of National Volunteer Month in April, groups of Sandia volunteers helped their communities by packaging and distributing boxes of food and preparing garden beds for vegetables.
Sandia partnered with Roadrunner Food Bank to host a mobile food pantry at an AMC movie theater on April 22. Families waited in a line of cars to pick up food while volunteers loaded boxes into vehicles. By the end of the morning, Sandia distributed groceries to nearly 200 families. On April 30, a group of 20 volunteers from Sandia helped Roadrunner sort and package enough cereal at their warehouse to feed more than 800 families.
As the largest food bank in New Mexico, Roadrunner plays a major role in distributing food to people facing food insecurity. The nonprofit feeds an average of 70,000 people per week throughout the year.
On April 23, 15 Sandia employees and their family members helped the Rio Grande Food Project pull weeds, prime plant beds, transplant sunflowers, turn the compost and plant onions, beets, arugula, kale, lettuce, asparagus and basil in their urban garden.
Since 1989, the Rio Grande Food Project has worked to prevent and alleviate hunger throughout the Albuquerque metro area. The food pantry feeds more than 775 people each week and teaches the community how to grow fresh produce.
In California, 16 Sandia volunteers spent a Saturday morning at the Fertile GroundWorks garden in Livermore. The group dug ditches to support the garden’s irrigation system, prepared plant beds, planted cucumbers and tomatoes and harvested more than 70 pounds of fresh onions.
Fertile GroundWorks produces and distributes more than 20,000 pounds of fresh produce per year.
Plant tomatoes with Seed2Need
Community Involvement is seeking 70 volunteers to plant tomatoes with Seed2Need on May 14 at 8:30 a.m. Families are welcome. Seed2Need grows and harvests produce to fill food pantries.
Contact Katrina Wagner to register.
CULTIVATING CROPS — From left, postdoctoral appointee Atri Bera, systems engineer Joseph Mohagheghi and postdoctoral appointee Garrett Marshall plant asparagus – a 15-to-30-year crop – at the Rio Grande Food Project’s urban garden. (Photo by Meagan Brace)
BURYING BULBS — Mechanical engineer Caroline Winters plants onions in one of 14 vegetable beds at the Rio Grande Food Project’s urban garden. (Photo by Meagan Brace)
PIT STOP — Sandia engineer Edna Martinez promotes Roadrunner Food Bank’s mobile food pantry to passing cars on Coors Boulevard outside the AMC movie theater. (Photo by Craig Fritz)
LOADING DOCK — Edna, left, and technologist Alex Hickman volunteer at Roadrunner Food Bank’s mobile food pantry outside a movie theater on April 22. (Photo by Craig Fritz)
TO-GO BOXES — As cars pulled up to the Roadrunner Food Bank’s mobile food pantry, Sandia volunteers like managers Haiqing Schwarz, left, and Samantha Darling loaded boxes into the back of their vehicles. (Photo by Craig Fritz)
PREPPING BOXES — Business management professional Marlon Sadler prepares boxes that will each hold two bags of cereal at Roadrunner Food Bank. (Photo by Meagan Brace)
SCOOPING CEREAL — Computer scientist Bryan Watson scoops a pound of cereal into a plastic bag at Roadrunner Food Bank. Sandia volunteers packaged more than 1,700 bags of food on April 30. (Photo by Meagan Brace)
FEEDING FAMILIES — Postdoctoral appointee Jessica Kopatz was one of 20 volunteers who measured cereal, prepared boxes and packaged enough food at Roadrunner Food Bank on April 30. (Photo by Meagan Brace)
