Fun-filled Family Volunteer Day helps others, provides lessons

The OC Food Bank in Garden Grove was bustling with activity as employees from 12 companies, including Edison International, Disney and Pacific Life, worked assembly lines with fast-paced precision and purpose.

It was National Family Volunteer Day, an annual event that falls on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and 2,000 volunteers of all ages had come together to help their community while also managing to have fun.

Employees from each company – teamed up with co-workers and their families – were in a friendly competition to assemble the most boxes of staples to help older, low-income residents get enough food.

“Let’s go Edison, let’s go,” 9-year-old Ace Potter bellowed from a portable microphone and speaker. He was cheering on the company where his mother, Erika, works.

Five-year-old Gus Begakis, his baseball cap with “VOLUNTEER” in stitched green letters turned backward, was with his parents. His mother, Bronwen Begakis, another Edison worker, was there to instill a sense of community service and “teach him by example,” she said.

Also, Gus was good at fitting into small gaps to collect trash, Begakis joked.

After OC Food Bank Director Mark Lowry tallied the morning’s stats, he announced the first-shift winner: Edison International. The company’s 240 volunteers had packed 7,515 boxes for the Senior Food Box Program.

By the end of the day, the collective effort would yield 20,340 of the supplemental food boxes – each 32-pound container is expected to last the recipient about three weeks with nonperishable items such as cereal, beans, lentils and juice.

Lowry reminded people, “It’s never about boxes, bottles or cans. It’s about the people” served by the work.

The Community Action Partnership of Orange County, which runs the food bank, has hosted the event since it started in 2006. To date, almost 20,000 volunteers have assembled 415,575 food boxes.