Our team visited the food bank at Regeneration on Tuesday June 15, 2021 with 100 boxes of mangoes. This was planned to show solidarity and peace despite the discrimination and injustice that is the recent highly unfortunate London incident. In times where people are dying and suffering due to COVID, there is still a population segment that is focused on hate crime. We are a multi-racial and multi-cultural team from nearly five different countries with an unwavering passion for co-existence and keeping humanity at the center of everything.       

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We are highly driven about helping the disadvantaged specifically in the challenging COVID times. The members at Regeneration were very welcoming and helpful; we unloaded the boxes together and exchanged pleasantries. We were invited inside the food bank after where we made some formal introductions and briefed each other about our respective operations. Regeneration has a great facility for storage with appropriate refrigeration available. The entire warehouse was organized into various sections and was well stocked for daily required goods ranging from diapers to canned food and fresh produce. We reached there at a time when the food bank team was setting up for guests before they arrive.

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Proper COVID-19 precautions were in place.  The guests were arriving and lining up while maintaining social distancing. Approximately 200-300 families pick up food from the facility each week. In addition, some of these guests also volunteer at the food bank for assisting with stocking, sorting and organizing the goods being offered.  One of the volunteers, Sherry, is also a cancer warrior, and gets dropped each week by her parents to help at the facility. She is a crazy Bollywood fan and showed us her photos in traditional dress of India. We asked her about what are the top of the list requirements that the guests look for and she shared a list.

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Apart from the donations, we talked in more detail with Jole, the manager at the facility, and asked about the volunteering schedules and options so that our team can also help at the food bank.