When organizers with the United Way of Greater Nashua put out the call for volunteers to help package meals for local food organizations like the Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter, New Hampshire Food Bank, Share Outreach in Milford and Corpus Christi Food Pantry in Nashua, they were hoping to get at least 40 people.

With that many volunteers, figured United Way president Mike Apfelberg, they could do the job in about three hours.

The task at hand was packaging 11,000 meals to be distributed to those organizations that act as food resources to people for whom food security may be an issue.

"There are good times and bad times for the pantries," Apfelberg said. Holidays are traditionally the best season for food pantries, and in the summer, the need increases while donations decrease.

"In the summertime, a couple of things happen: Kids are out of school and can’t access food programs, and there are lower contributions in the summer because people are on vacation," he said.

The United Way teamed up with End Hunger New England, part of Outreach Inc. United Way raised the money, and End Hunger provided the food and equipment at a cost of 25 cents per meal. They arranged to stage the operation this past Tuesday at the Nashua Community College gym, and the call for volunteers went out.

What happened says a lot about the kind – and kindness – of people who live in our local communities. It warms our cynical old newspaper hearts to report that 67 people turned out on Tuesday to help package meals.

They included members of the United Way board of directors and their families, UPS workers, students and local residents. The eldest volunteer was board member Peter Chaloner, 71. His 5-year-old grandson, Nathan, was the youngest. In between were people like Bishop Guertin High School student Rachel Crowell, 15, who said it was her first time volunteering. She pronounced the event "pretty nice."

Once the volunteers were on hand, End Hunger staff organized them into three assembly lines and they went to work. Each line was responsible for packaging its own entree: pasta with tomato basil sauce; mac and cheese; and red beans and rice.

And therein lies another great part of this story.

Not only did the turnout exceed organizers’ expectations; so did the number of meals they put together. Thanks to a last-minute sponsorship from UPS, that 11,000 number turned out to be 15,500.

This was the first time the local United Way had tried this in Nashua, and the fact that the volunteer turnout and the number of meals packaged both exceeded projections is a good barometer of resounding success.

We hope they do it again next year.

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