SUNBURY, Pa. — A parking lot in Sunbury looked like an assembly line as more than 75 people packed boxes of food.
"We have cereal; we have Pop-Tarts, we have fruit cups, things like that. And then we also have personal hygiene bags," said Karen Leonovich, an administrator with Area Agency on Aging.
The Northumberland County Area Agency on Aging regularly gives out food boxes to hundreds of seniors. But because of the COVID-19 crisis, people are running out of food.
"We had heard from some adults who had a box of cereal, and that's all they had. They had some apples, and that's all they had," Leonovich said.
Leonovich knew they had to do something. They bought food using emergency grant money.
"We thought we would put some food boxes together and deliver them. That's hard when we are mostly working remotely. So in the meantime, the Boy Scouts reached out to us and volunteered to assist with any project we needed," Leonovich said.
"We came out in full force. We're packing up 350 packages for different clients and delivering 250 alone," Walter Howell said.
More than 60 scouts showed up from Union, Snyder and Northumberland Counties. They packed and delivered boxes as part of their community service.
"Which you know at first seems is a chore, but once they start doing the stuff they come back if they have to do six hours, they come back and do 24 hours because they understand the meaning," Howell said.
Hand sanitizer and masks were provided for all volunteers.