Mission ‘Impastable’ pasta packing event

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Food rescue organization We Share Hope teamed up with Pawtucket-based travel company Collette to host its third annual Mission Impastable pasta packing event.

“We have all of this great pasta we are bagging and that can be donated out to the community to the food pantries,” volunteer April Arruda said. “And the other ways that We Share Hope gives back to people with food insecurity, it’s great. We have donated money, we are getting pasta ready to be shipped out, and we get to have a competition with it, too.”

The event was inspired by a generous donation three years ago from a food donor.

“Three years ago we got a call from a food donor saying we have 20,000 pounds of pasta,” Executive Director Johanna Corcoran said. “It came in huge boxes and we were like, ‘oh my goodness, how can we get this out to the community?’ So we came up with the idea to get a whole bunch of people together to bag the pasta up and we thought we would make a competition out of it.”

Corporate teams gathered together in a competition to bag 500 pounds of pasta into one pound bags.

“This pasta is going out to our partners all across the state of Rhode Island. We partner with nonprofits to help feed their communities,” Corcoran added.

The goal of the event was to bag a total of 10,000 pounds of pasta and raise $40,000 through team registration fees and corporate sponsorships.

“It feels so good to help and to give back,” Arruda said. “Even just to see the operations of what is going on. You hear about these charities but to actually go in and see it.”

All event proceeds will allow the organization to open and sustain school-based food pantries in ten high-need schools throughout Rhode Island.