Saturday, the 10th of October, Rotary organized the annual operation harvest. Operation harvest is a community food drive to collect non-perishable food and financial donations for local food banks ahead of the winter months.
As a member of the Rotary, I had the opportunity to see what happens behind the scenes and learn how much work goes into organizing something like this. It takes a lot of time, planning and many volunteers. First of all, paper bags need to be handed out. Yakima got divided into different areas which are each handed to people from the rotary and volunteers. It took me and another volunteer quite a while to pass out all of the bags in the area. When residents receive the bag they fill it up with non-perishable food and leave them outside of their homes for volunteers to collect. You could also donate money, which goes to supporting the local food banks.
On the 10th it was time to pick up the filled bags residents put out on their porches. This is an important part of the event, as all the donations help support people in the community who may be struggling to put food on the table. Most of the volunteers used big trucks to fit all the bags in, there were even some volunteers that used a school bus. I found it fascinating to see how many people took their time to help out and really make a difference. It was really busy at the bag drop off, cars filled with bags kept coming. There were students from IKE helping out with putting all of the filled bags in boxes. Because of all these amazing volunteers, operation Harvest was a big success.
Operation harvest is a reminder that even small acts of kindness can have a meaningful impact. By working together with all of the rotary members, (IKE) volunteers and local residents it can help to make the winter months a little brighter for families in need.
