On Saturday, July 28th, we held our first ever Bonus Saturday! We held it in the parking lot of the food shelf at our K-Tel location. We had 26 volunteers on hand to help out with the event, plus nine staff.
Of the 11 trucks that our volunteers packed at the food rescue event two days earlier, three were filled with perishable food--63,000 pounds worth! We were able to freeze and store one truck's worth but were left with two semi trucks filled with produce, bakery, and deli. In order to share this food quickly (before it perished), we held our first ever Bonus Saturday! This one-day bonus event offered our clients the opportunity to take what they could use from an amazing selection of produce, deli, and bakery items.
Bonus Saturday was a truly wonderful day. We served over 250 families in only three hours, distributing 22,258 pounds of food! The produce selection was incredible and included all of our favorite fruits and vegetables such as apples, potatoes, tomatoes, and berries, as well as more unusual offerings like Jackfruit and Rambutan. The deli selection included dairy, beverages, and prepared foods, and there was a large array of bakery items as well.
It was so fun to delight our clients with the selection and bounty available at Bonus Saturday. We all worked as hard as we could, stocking as fast as clients were shopping. We set up tables outside in our parking lot for the produce, and clients shopped from the tables. After they picked all the produce that they wanted, they proceeded into the food shelf to select dairy and deli items. After that, they came back outside and chose bakery items.
We are so grateful to everyone who made this event a success! It was such a joy-filled day as we delighted our clients with so much fantastic food.
