A Saturday Morning at Manna

The MANNA food pantry opens at 10:00 on Saturday mornings, but lots goes on inside before the doors open to our clients.  Here's a look at one recent Saturday morning at Manna. 7:30  -  The MANNA truck begins rounds to pick up food donations from local grocery stores. 8:00 -  The doors and gates are unlocked and lights are turned on. 8:10  -  Volunteers begin to arrive.  First in is a 7th grader who has been working at Manna for two years.  He starts by carefully stocking bagels on the bread shelves and notes the abundance of sesame bagels this morning. Clients start to arrive and wait for the pantry to open. 8:30  -  A lanky 8th grader arrives for his seventh time volunteering at Manna.  He's there because he   saw online that Manna needed volunteers and he wants to help out. A 6th grader from Ascension Lutheran and his mom check in.  It's their first time at Manna. A mother and daughter arrive to volunteer from the National Charity League. Our two year veteran 7th grader supervises the new volunteers on how to stock the shelves. 8:45  -  The Manna truck returns from the grocery store pick up.  The volunteers get busy unloading the truck, staging the food items, and stocking shelves. 9:00 -  A pickup truck parks in from with several boxes of fresh oranges to donate.  One of the clients helps to translate then recruits other clients to move the heavy boxes into the pantry. 9:30 - A senior volunteer who does administrative work and checks clients in arrives. Some twenty clients have gathered in the front yard seating area and in cars waiting to come in. 10:00 - The Manna food pantry opens to clients. So if you ever find yourself wondering what Conejo Valley middle school students do on Saturday mornings.  You now know what some of them do.  They care, they show up, they help.