This is a guest post by Vanessa Ronquillo, a Project Manager at Array Health and member of the Emerging Leaders Committee.

There’s never a bad time to give back – and I joined twenty-three Emerging Leaders one rainy Tuesday evening to volunteer with the organization Food Lifeline. We braved the weather to do some good – and help feed Western Washington in the process!

As a group we had a chance to take a tour or their well-organized warehouse and learned that Food Lifeline works with the food industry to solve a number of hunger problems. They are a food bank for all food banks and redirect food that may otherwise go to waste from manufacturers, farmers, stores, and restaurants to those in need. This organization ties in perfectly with United Way’s initiative to keep families stable by ensuring that families have access to nutritious food every day.

After the tour, everyone was put to work. We divided the group into tables of five, two on working on corn distribution and five on labels. Together everyone worked as a team repackaging about 2,804 lbs of frozen corn, providing 2,336 meals for people of Western Washington! It was truly inspiring to see what just a few helping hands could accomplish in just a few hours.