Volunteers Hit the Streets for Harvest Saturday

To an outsider, it might seem like chaos, but to experienced volunteers, it's a well-oiled machine. As the cars pull up, volunteers rush to unload bags and boxes of food, from canned goods to frozen turkeys and everything in between.

After loading it all onto pallets and shopping carts, the workers frantically dump it onto what can best be described as a conveyor belt, where another set of volunteers quickly sorts the items. From there, donations are loaded onto carts to be transported to the right place, whether it’s the soup room or the vegetable room or a set of freezers waiting to store Thanksgiving hams and turkeys.

“It’s really precise,” volunteer Denise Armbruster said of the annual Harvest Saturday effort. “There’s a room for everything,” she added, including a checkpoint where volunteers inspect each donation to make sure it isn’t expired or damaged.

On one Saturday each November, is transformed into a food-sorting warehouse, as workers collect and package donated food to be distributed to four local food pantries.

Armed with maps of their designated routes, teams of volunteers hit the streets on Nov. 19, going door to door to collect donations. The event is a joint effort of St. Andrew, , and .

This time around, Harvest Saturday drew an estimated 500 volunteers, according to organizer Terry Hinchey.

“They’ve been coming and going,” she said, stopping to chat for a moment amid the hustle and bustle.

Theo Sloan, 20, was among a group of volunteers from Community Christian Church.

“We’re waiting to be busy,” he said with a smile, as workers waited for the next wave of canned goods to arrive at their sorting station. Sloan’s reason for participating was simple.

“Just helping out,” he said.

The tradition got its start 18 years ago. Back then, it was known as Harvest Sunday, Ambruster said. Several years ago, the event was shifted to a Saturday, but the purpose remains the same: to help area food pantries supply holiday meals to families that are struggling to make ends meet.

This year’s effort benefited the joint Good Shepherd/United Presbyterian Shepherd’s Pantry, St. Andrew’s We Care pantry, The Community Service Council of Northern Will County and MorningStar Mission in Joliet.

“Each of the food pantries have forms to fill out as far as the needs of the pantry,” Armbruster explained. As the food is collected, it is sorted, boxed and packaged according to each pantry’s needs. At the end of the day, food pantry staffers arrive to pick up boxes of food to be distributed to families during the holiday season.

In recent years, volunteers have seen the need increase in the community — but that hasn’t stopped Romeoville residents from reaching into their own pantries and giving what they can.

“It seems the worse the economy is, the more people give that are able to give,” Armbruster said.

Volunteer Abby Cull, 15, said she was surprised by how much food residents on her route were willing to donate.

“We got a lot of food,” the student said, adding that this was her first year participating in Harvest Saturday. “It was fun.”

Every little bit helps, said Armbruster.

“Even if you only get three cans, it’s three cans we didn’t have before,” she said. “The reality is, it doesn’t matter to me if you’re collecting for this food pantry or for that food pantry, as long as it gets to the people who need it.”