"We need to get the food out:" Hundreds of volunteers pack pallets of food for Hunger Task Force

MILWAUKEE -- The Hunger Task Force has had a successful holiday season but it needs help sorting all the food. In this case, Kohl's Cares stepped up the the "pallet."

Hunger Task Force

The Kohl's Innovation Center has been turned into a mega food-sorting facility. More than 300 volunteers from Kohl's have joined in the fight against hunger by organizing and packing healthy meals for the hungry.

"It's awesome. It is so awesome to see this many people working on our behalf. Hungry people in Milwaukee are super thankful," said Sherrie Tussler, Hunger Task Force executive director.

This is the Hunger Task Force's largest food sort to date.

Hunger Task Force

"A typical food sort at Hunger Task Force using volunteers is going to use about 25 people over the course of about four hours and they may sort about 20,000-25,000 pounds. This is 100-thousand pounds in an hour," said Tussler.

Sherrie Tussler

The Hunger Task Force is then going to take all the food to 70 local homeless shelters, soup kitchens and food pantries.

"We need to get the food out and this is going to help get the food out today," said Tussler.

More than 35,000 people receive food from local pantries each month, and nearly 60,000 meals are served at soup kitchens and shelters.

"Usually it's something we maybe dissociate with our home and our hometown, but to have it be something that's right here in our backyard and for us to be able to react to that and jump in and help where we can I think is a great way to do that," said Kohl's Associate, Ernie Evangelista.

Hunger Task Force

Evangelista is happy to escape his day job for a few hours and help the less fortunate.

"I think it's a great experience so we're very happy to do it," said Evangelista.

All of the work helps to put a stop to food shortage.