Tarrant Area Food Bank Volunteer Day

Packaging food to be distributed to local Fort Worth families and soup kitchens was a fun and fulfilling Wednesday afternoon.  

IEA’s Brandon Oliver, PE, CFM arranged for the IEA Fort Worth office to volunteer at the Tarrant Area Food Bank (TAFB) Distribution Center on December 21, 2022.  

“I’d volunteered there before with Marium (fiancé) a couple times about 4 years ago with ASCE. They are a well-oiled machine. I like doing their events,” Oliver said. 

Eight IEA staff members worked with 20 other volunteers to quality check the donated foods, then sort and pack meals.  

“We prepared approximately 8,000-10,000 meals that were distributed the week of Christmas to families in Tarrant County,” Oliver said. 

Many of the IEA team found it a satisfying opportunity. 

“I guess I would describe it as very fulfilling, after everything was boxed and ready to ship out (and they told us how many meals we provided for people with helping that day) it was nice feeling to have while driving back to the office,” said Tanner Carr, EIT.  

Carr expressed that it was worth the time and effort, and he even worked up a sweat that afternoon.   

Aymen Ensor, PE (Project Engineer) said that he would go back to volunteer with them again.  

“It was a very efficient day. Everybody was working hard and smiling. We packed potatoes into 5-pound bags. Then we assorted goods into bins and compiled 40 pounds of food into a box. Lastly, we packed the boxes, and they were taken away for shipment,” Ensor said.  

It wasn’t all work. The TAFB Distribution Center has a break room for the volunteers to take a moment away from the work.  

“There was a 10 min break and I remember them having big cupcakes in the break room that I enjoyed eating,” said Ensor. 

Interested in having a similar experience? Check out more information on the TAFB Website