Salvation Army volunteers working to pack 16,000 holidays meals in Elk Grove Village

Volunteers kept busy sorting and packing thousands of Christmas food boxes with turkey or chicken, vegetables, cranberry sauce, dessert and other holiday staples Tuesday afternoon at the Salvation Army facility in Elk Grove Village.

The group is working to fill 16,000 boxes by the end of the week to help those in need have a memorable holiday meal, said Camerin Courtney Mattson, communications manager for the Salvation Army's metropolitan division.

"The trucks will be loaded, and the food boxes will go out to a 28 core community centers. Then those boxes get distributed to people in each community," Mattson said. ""Overall, we've seen at the Salvation Army that the need for help has just been elevated."

Ben Parisi of Mount Prospect was one of the 38 volunteers from Zurich Insurance who was laboring away, loading cranberry sauce in the boxes by the dozens.

Mattson said the Salvation Army has several partnerships with corporations like Goya and organizations like the Greater Chicago Food Depository to help with the effort. Their goal this year is to fill 1,000 more boxes than in 2020.

For information about volunteering or helping, visit www.salarmychicago.org.