The DRBC staff volunteer team after a successful day packing nearly 500 bags for Mercer Street Friends' Community Food Bags program. As the sign says, "Teamwork Makes the Dream Work." Photo by DRBC.

While DRBC staff's main focus is managing and protecting the shared waters of the Delaware River Basin, folks also care about helping out in our Basin communities.

Staff recently volunteered at the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank (MSF) in Ewing Township, N.J. This is one of our favorite volunteer activities, supporting the "home base" of the DRBC office: Mercer County!

MSF is the leader of the community's response to hunger, offering prevention programs and annually distributing millions of pounds of privately- and government-donated food to a network of more than 100 shelters, soup kitchens and food pantries in Mercer County, N.J. In addition to running the food bank, Mercer Street Friends also offers a free preschool and many programs for youth, adults and parents.

To respond to the growing needs of its communities, MSF expanded a couple of years ago to a larger warehouse for increased storage and improved food distribution. One distribution program is MSF's "Community Food Bags" program, which provides bags - and fresh products - to Mercer Co. food pantries and other partner groups to distribute to the community. In total, the program provides anywhere from 9,000 to 11,000 bags a month! 

This was the staff's 11th year volunteering at the Food Bank, and this year we made 480 bags for the Community Food Bag program. We may have only been there a couple of hours, but our service will be felt by many. A small agency can have a big impact when they work together to do good for others. As one of the seasoned MSF volunteers told us, "It was a good day!"

Thank you to the MSF staff for having us and for all you do in the local community. Learn more about all the great work of MSF at https://mercerstreetfriends.org/.

DRBC staff volunteers used moving carts to fill bags with food from each station. The assembly line format helped us pack bags quickly. Photo by the DRBC.	DRBC staff works to pack the bags. They are then sorted, 40 bags per pallet box, and prepped to head out to community programs. Photo by the DRBC.	DRBC staff works to pack the bags. They are then sorted, 40 bags per  pallet box, and prepped to head out to community programs. Photo by the DRBC.

DRBC staff volunteers used moving carts to fill bags with food from each station. The assembly line format helped us pack  bags quickly. Photo by the DRBC.	DRBC staff works to pack the bags. They are then sorted, 40 bags per pallet box, and prepped to head out to community programs. Photo by the DRBC.