2009 News

October 21, 2009

Enough Pasta To Stretch From The Courthouse To The White House
Bucks County Offers Resources to Distribute 20 Tons of Donated Pasta

Pasta!The Bucks County General Services Warehouse in Doylestown Township is pulling double duty for the next few days. The building is serving as the staging area for a massive food distribution effort. 

Philadelphia Macaroni Company recently donated 20 tons of pasta to the Bucks County Opportunity Council (BCOC), which can desperately use the pasta to stock the shelves of the 13 food pantries it supports daily. This is the largest one-time food donation in the annals of the Opportunity Council’s Food Program.

Logistically, however, the endeavor involves a lot of pasta.  The BCOC needed a big space to store it, and a large staging area where volunteers can repackage the pasta into one-pound, family-size containers. The effort also required forklifts, a loading dock, and the manpower to manage it all.      

Commissioners Martin and Cawley with voluneteers.That’s where Bucks County government stepped up to provide assistance. The county has a large, central warehouse on Almshouse Rd.  Commissioner Chairman Charley Martin stated, “We saw this as a no-brainer.  What a great opportunity for county government, a wonderful non-profit like the Opportunity Council, a local business and concerned volunteers to all work together and help fill the pantries for hungry families.”

Volunteers will be scooping the 40,000 lbs of pasta and filling bag after bag in the county warehouse.  Family-sized pasta portions will be distributed to low-income individuals and families in Bucks County. According to BCOC Executive Director Roger Collins, the massive pasta donation will be greatly appreciated by members of the community his organization serves. 

Commissioner Marseglia with volunteers.Following are some fun facts about this record donation:
Twenty tons of pasta will provide 160,000 servings of spaghetti for low-income individuals and families in Bucks County, but in case you were wondering what else it could’ve been used for:

  • If each piece of pasta were laid end-to-end, the row of rigatoni would stretch from the doorstep of the Bucks County Courthouse all the way to the doorstep of the White House!
  • Stacking the 1,000 pound boxes that were used to deliver the pasta on top of each other would create a tower of tortellini eleven stories high!
  • First-graders could use the pasta to make 750,000 noodles necklaces!