Pack It Up is a take home meal program to help any household in our district that would benefit from an after school food supplement. It does not pretend to be a perfectly balanced meal; rather, it is a nutritious supplement to a household diet. Anyone who expresses a need will be supplied; there are no income guidelines and it is available to all grade levels. To qualify a parent must submit a si
gned request form which is available at all the school offices or @ packitupcoopersville.wixsite.com/cumc. The forms are to be returned to the school office. A pack it up meal usually consists of a peanut butter sandwich, a pudding cup, a granola bar, and trail mix. This may vary depending on the donations received. PIU is totally dependent on volunteer workers and product or money donations. We are always in need of pudding cups, granola bars, peanut butter, plastic zip lock snack and sandwich bags, and #4 brown paper lunch bags. However, we do most of our shopping at Sam’s Club and Meijer wholesale; so we might get more from your dollar than you can. All food handling is supervised by a health department trained and certified food manager and occurs at the Church of the Saviour which has a licensed kitchen by the Health Department. It is done by a volunteer crew on Monday mornings. The bread is frozen and the finished sandwiches go back in the freezer. They are thawed in a refrigerator for twenty-four hours before delivery. Last year this crew made more than 30,000 sandwiches. Other crews pack snack bags and assemble the lunches. The sandwiches are added just before the lunches are trucked to the schools. Volunteers distribute the lunches in each building. Food handlers must remove wrist jewelry, cover their hair, wash their hands and wrists for 20 seconds, and wear rubber gloves. If a worker is ill, they must be symptomatic free for twenty-four hours before working. The Health Department can arrive unannounced at any time to inspect our operation. We currently have three additional needs. We need a second person to take the training to be a standby certified food manager. The current manager is old. If you are a grower of small apples you could enhance our lunches with regular discounted or donated apples. Finally, we need a promoter. We have a strong core group of smiling volunteers, but a person with promotional skills could perhaps secure regular corporate sponsors to stabilize our funding. I think our volunteers easily maintain their commitment to serve because they are sure their work will not be wasted. It is un-likely that a three year old could eat a sandwich, a pudding cup, a granola bar, and a half cup of trail mix on their own, but it is likely that someone else in the household will finish what remains. If you would like more information about Pack It Up, call Kris or Pastor Cori at the Coopersville United Methodist Church (997-9225) or John Prichard (997-6884). Kris also maintains a list of possible volunteers. We will begin lunch delivery on September 13.
9 Years. 5 Buildings. Over 170,000 Meals Served! To qualify a parent must submit an online request form which is available at PackItUpCoopersville.wixsite.com/cumc. A Pack It Up meal usually consists of a peanut butter sandwich, a pudding cup, a granola bar, and trail mix. It does not pretend to be a perfectly balanced meal; rather, it is a nutritious supplement to a regular diet. Secondly, if you are a grower of small apples, you could enhance our lunches with regular discounted or donated apples. We have a strong core group of smiling volunteers, and adding a strong person with promotional skills could help secure greater community support.
“I think our volunteers easily maintain their commitment to serve because they are sure their work will not be wasted,” remarked John Prichard, PIU’s current food manager and core volunteer. Because of the work and support of so many volunteers, Pack It Up has served over 170,000 meals across five school buildings in 9 years. If you would like more information about Pack It Up, call the Coopersville United Methodist Church (997-9225) or visit the website @ PackItUpCoopersville.wixsite.com/cumc.
