Empty Pantry Fund board members and other volunteers werenât quite sure what to expect Thursday when they arrived at the Tennessee Army National Guard Armory for a most untraditional day of packing food baskets. Would there be enough volunteers to pack more than 1,400 baskets? How would the new process, mandated by COVID-19 safety requirements, work?
They didnât have to worry. As EPF President Lon Fox said, âIt was a great day for the Empty Pantry Fund. In the middle of COVID, we didnât let it conquer us â we conquered it.â
Fox, along with EPF Secretary Morgan Hodson and Treasurer Tony Clark, worked the entire day, from before 9 a.m. when the first of three shifts of volunteers came to pack food baskets for less-fortunate Blount County residents until after 7 p.m. when packing was complete.