A local food pantry held a dinner to thank its many volunteers, who logged almost 16,000 hours to feed people in need last year.

Eagle’s Wings Food Pantry held its annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner on April 30, at which USDA Farm Service Agency Director Bob Etheridge gave encouraging words to volunteers and Eagle’s Wings staff and pointed out that the number of hours the volunteers logged equated to over $390,000, based on a scale from the federal government of $22 per hour logged.

“No wonder we don’t pay you, we couldn’t afford that much to run Eagle’s Wings,” Etheridge said at the dinner, according to Ann-Marie Montague, director of the pantry.

“When you put it into dollars and cents terms, it really does make an impact,” Montague said. “No one person can do that, but each person working together and doing what they can makes it all happen.”

The dinner, themed, ‘Helping Hands,’ was catered by Keyzer Catering of Pantego, which included pork loin, friend chicken, banana pudding, baked potato, green beans and dinner rolls, Montague said.

Montague said the work the food pantry does in the community would not be possible without the work of its volunteers. Between working in the warehouse, where food is stored, serving clients in the client’s choice market in the food pantry, registering clients and other tasks, volunteers make possible the programs and services Eagle’s Wings offers to the community, including homebound deliveries to clients, mobile food pantries and its backpack program that sends local students home with food on weekends, Montague said.

“It takes a lot of man hours to accomplish this so that’s why we like to show appreciation for how valuable they are to us,” Montague said. “We love our volunteers. What they do is of imminent value. It gives them a sense of pride in what they’ve been able to accomplish and what they are doing. It’s nice to know we’re also the hands of God to so may of our clients.”

Eagle’s Wings is located at 932 W. 3^rd St. in Washington. For more information or to volunteer, contact them at 252-975-1138.