HOWARD COUNTY, Md. — Volunteers from a retirement community in Columbia are helping the planet and saving a local food bank money.
They're called the ‘Bag Ladies and Gentlemen,’ where every Thursday volunteers from Residences at Vantage Point are making a difference one brown paper bag at a time.
"To make sure that all these bags that come from the dining room with our meals and so on that are in them. That they actually end up being reused not recycled reused by the Howard County Food Bank,” said Jean Larson who lives at Residences at Vantage.
It started back in 2019 during the pandemic, when brown paper bags started accumulating in their apartments.
"One of our former residents, Sue Buswell, decided waste not want not. So, she was trying to find organizations that would accept the donations,” said Patti Hutton who is the Director of Marketing at Residences at Vantage.
Once the community action council was on board, the bag collection took off.
"Have been collecting between three and five hundred bags a week from all the residents through their shopping and deliveries,” said Larson.
A group of men and women then sort and pack the brown paper bags. The good news spread and a local grocery store even joined in with donations.
"Basically I went to Trader Joe's about once a week, now it's a little less and I knew a few people in there and I said look we need these bags for this reason which is to help other people,” said Pat Bruce who lives at Residences at Vantage.
"The Trader Joe bags are handle bags and they're the perfect size for us,” said Larson. “To put these in. And we put these in upside down so they're very easy for the food bank to just take them out. And we will put these in until we get 40.”
After the bags are packed, multiple carts are filled, transferred to the car and off to the food bank they go. It's their way of doing their part to give back.
“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 Larson.
The group recently celebrated their 100,000 paper bag collection and have saved the food bank over $11,000.
Larson said she hopes the good news will spread and other organizations will join in on donating bags.
