Cumac Mission Statement

The organization, which I decided to volunteer two hours of my day to, was Cumac. Cumac is located in Paterson, New Jersey and they work to serve the people in the counties of Passaic, Paterson, and Northern New Jersey. They work with a staff of 21 and volunteers from all over to help people in need with food and supplies they would need to survive. Their mission statement is: “CUMAC feeds people and changes lives. It works to alleviate hunger and its root causes for those in need in Paterson, Passaic County, and northern New Jersey.” People are starving all over the world and it’s a great initiative by this company to try and do something about it starting from counties in their city. When I arrived at the shelter, I was perplexed on what was going to happen. My friends along with myself went up to a lady who had a green shirt on, which said ‘CUMAC.’ She directed us to sign in and to go help whoever needed help when we were done. There were a lot of people in a parking lot next to the building of Cumac. People were in groups by boxes where they filled up different items in each box. There were boxes for items such as cereal, grains, bottles, baby items, etc. The time I got there was called a ‘down time.’ There were sometimes “down times” where volunteers are offered a chance to grab a snack or drink

All of the volunteers who were there went straight to truck and started unloading groceries. When unloading, volunteers along with myself took the items out from the bags and place them in their desired boxes. Boxes were set up on crates and when they were full, someone with a forklift would come and take it inside to store it. There were a couple more trucks, which came in and the same process of unloading and packing was done. Everyone was working together and helping each other. There were even some little kids who would go into big boxes and help taking out canned