How much space do 100,000 cans, boxes and containers of food take up?
About 400 square feet, according to volunteers who built a one-room house out of donated food items for local relief agencies on Saturday at the Riverwalk.
Around 80 volunteers assisted the Valley United Way in building its annual Harvest House. This is the group’s third house, and for the first time, the volunteers at the site were mostly local teenagers.
Volunteer Center Director Pat Tarasovic noted that Shelton High School had a big presence at the event, with student athletes and student council members among the volunteers.
Even with the economy still down and out, Tarasovic said donations were on par with previous years.
“The community at large is just really responsive,” she said. “People come to bring their bag of groceries and they just stay – they get caught up in this whirlwind, like ‘Can I do this, can I do that?’”
Wooden double-sided shelving units donated by Pitney Bowes in 2005, the first year of the Harvest House project, serve as the walls of the simple four-walled, one-room structure.
Each shelf can fit more than 300 cans or around two dozen average-sized cereal boxes.
When a shelf is done being filled, volunteers seal it off by stapling a sheet of plastic wrap over the shelf. When the aid organizations come to take the goods, the plastic wrap is removed.
This year, eight organizations will receive food from the project, including the local branches of the Salvation Army, Red Cross and YMCA.
Each organization had a dedicated wall of the house in which teams of 10 volunteers put varied amounts and kinds of food based on each group’s needs.
Building the house is a two-day project.
On Friday, volunteers began stocking the shelves at the house, but the real work was on Saturday, when more food donations came in during the day and needed to be added to the shelves.
When the shelves were filled, excess food was placed within the house for the agencies.
At about 1 p.m. Saturday, many of the walls were already near-full, and Tarasovic said she expected more toward the end of the day as word gets around town.
“It’s such a huge effort, and it’s really spectacular,” she said, adding that she will continue this project because “Everyone in the Valley really feels it (hunger), especially today.”
Visit the Valley United Way’s Web site to see more videos and information about Harvest House III.
