Six girls from Interact Club went to the Survival Center yesterday, Nov. 19, to volunteer their time before Thanksgiving.

Carley Moniz, Felicia Robare, Alissa Mahar, Kaytlin Nelson, Katarina  Pereira, Anna Orlandi, and advisor Ronald Hokanson helped organize clothes, sort through pantry items, and made care packages.

Care packages included personal hygiene products. They set up a bag with a bar of soap, shampoo and conditioner, and a toothbrush with toothpaste.

In the back of the shop, girls were hanging up clothes that had recently been donated. They took clothes from piles, put them onto hangars, and separated the men’s, women’s and children’s clothing.

“The clothes are sold for $3 apiece,” says Hokanson. “All of the money goes back into the food fund, then we go out and buy more food.”

In the pantry, the girls stacked and sorted cans onto the shelves.

“People will take anything that they can get,” says Hokanson. “They usually get a choice of two holidays out of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.”

If the family chooses Thanksgiving as one of their holidays to get from the pantry, they will receive a turkey, a gravy packet, a box of stuffing, a box of instant potatoes, and two vegetables.

“We expect to give out over 600 turkeys this Thanksgiving,” says Hokanson.

While the girls were at the Survival Center, they had two women show up an entire back seat and truck full, stacked high with food. They helped unload the car and put away a majority of food.

Workers in the food pantry express that even though they have a lot of food now, the food will only last about a month then their shelves will be empty again.

The Interact Club plans to be going back to the Survival Center again soon to continue to volunteer their time.