Columbia Retirement Community Residents Support Food Bank With Bag Collection Initiative

COLUMBIA, MD — A group of dedicated volunteers from a retirement community in Columbia, fondly called the "Bag Ladies and Gentlemen," gather every Thursday to help a local food bank and protect the environment at the same time.

The volunteers started their project in 2019 during the pandemic when brown paper bags started piling up in their apartments from all of the food and grocery deliveries the residents were arranging.

"One of our former residents, Sue Buswell, decided waste not want not. So, she was trying to find organizations that would accept the donations,” Patti Hutton, director of marketing at Residences at Vantage Point, told WMAR.

On average, the group collects anywhere from 300 to 500 bags each week from residents. Then the Bag Ladies and Gentlemen sort and pack the brown paper bags each week, combined with an infusion of bag donations from a local grocery store, and deliver them to a food bank.

The group recently celebrated their 100,000 paper bag collection and has saved the food bank more than $11,000.

"You're in an institution like this and sometimes people think that, well, you know they're just there and not really doing anything,” said Jean Larson who lives at Residences at Vantage Point.

Read more at WMAR

Patch has partnered with Feeding America since 2020 to help raise awareness in our local communities of hunger, a persistent national problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks and 60,000 local meals programs across the country, estimates that nearly 34 million people, including 9 million children — about 1 in 6 Americans — are living with food insecurity. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.