Backpack Details

When you arrive, head to the back of the food bank to the assembly area. All the supplies will be laid out on tables in a line to make it easy to pack the bags. Arriving on time will ensure that you and your team will be able to finish by 7:00 PM.

Grab a plastic bag on the end and just walk through the line, filling your bag with the food in each box. Use the Labels on the boxes to pack your bag with the appropriate amounts of supplies.

NOTE: If any supplies run out on the table, extra supplies can be found under the table.

Example of Bag contents (from 10/17/2018): 1 Apple or 2 Oranges, 1 Box of Macaroni and Cheese, 1 pack of Top Ramen, 1 Pack of Snacks (pre-packed before), 1 Package of Pop Tarts, 1 Bag of Chips, 2 Oatmeals, 1 Snack Cake.

Complete Each Bag: Once the bag is packed you can close the bag with the tape machine and put it inside of a plastic grocery bag. Hand the finished bag to the people who are packing the boxes with the appropriate amount of bags for each school.

Go back to the beginning of the line and assemble another bag. Repeat until the total number of bags needed are all packed. (On 10/17/2018, 281 bags were packed)

Once the total of needed bags has been completed, make sure the assembly line is left in good condition, with any empty boxes left on top of the freezer or under the tables. Once all the school boxes have been packed and stacked neatly, you are free to go.

At the end of the bag assembly, grab a couple of friends or your whole team, snap a picture and send them to jadonh@openlife.church. To protect other’s privacy, be sure your picture only includes content related to the bag assembly line, with only you and/or your team of people who you have permission to share pictures of, with no other people in the background. Share them on social media using the #sumnerbackpack hashtag.

Most people on your team will be going through the assembly line, but having 3-5 people who can focus on the following roles will create the most efficient workflow.

This person (or people) will not assemble bags but will take completed bags from people and place them in the boxes. They will decide how many bags will fit in a box and pack each box accordingly (ie. On 10/17/2018, 10 bags fit in each box, but on 10/24/2018, only 6 bags were able to fit in a box.)

NOTE: Boxes are fruit boxes (found on top of the freezer) with open bottoms. Be sure to grab cardboard (pizza boxes) to cover the bottom so finished bags don’t fall through.

This person can assemble bags when they are not busy, but their first priority is to decide how many boxes each school will get. Each week there will be a list with the number of backpacks that each school will receive. Once there are boxes full of bags, determine how many boxes each school needs and create labels for those boxes.

EXAMPLE: Sumner Middle School needed 55 bags.

That is 5 boxes of 10 bags, plus 1 box of 5 bags.
They created 6 Labels that include:

Name: SMS,
Box number (total boxes): 1 (6), 2 (6), 3 (6), 4 (6), 5 (6), 6 (6)
On the last tag include the total number of Bags: 55 Total

This person (or people) can assemble bags when they are not packing up the Sumner Community Food Bank Van. Keys to the van can be found in the cabinet above the front desk, they are on a University of Washington Lanyard. Once boxes have been filled with bags and they have been labelled by the person tracking numbers, then finished boxes can be packed in the van. Please Lock Van and return the keys when you are finished. The order to pack the van is as follows:

SIDE OF VAN: Boxes for Sumner Middle School and Boxes for Maple Lawn Elementary

BACK OF VAN: Boxes for Daffodil Elementary

FRONT SEAT: Boxes for Sumner High School

THEN PACK CARTS: Once the Sumner schools have been loaded into the van, all other boxes for the schools can be loaded on carts and wheeled towards the back by the big door. They will be picked up after the Sumner Schools are delivered on Friday morning.

The Box Packer decided that 10 bags were able to be put into each box and packed each box accordingly.

The Numbers Tracker saw that Sumner Middle School needed 55 bags.
That is 5 boxes of 10 bags, plus 1 box of 5 bags.

They created 6 Labels that include:

Name: SMS,
Box number (total boxes): 1 (6), 2 (6), 3 (6), 4 (6), 5 (6), 6 (6)
On the last tag include the total number of Bags: 55 Total

The Van Packer waited until all the boxes for the Sumner Schools were packed and placed on carts and then took them out to the van. And packed accordingly.