Volunteers pack 250,000 pounds of rice for Eastern Wisconsin food pantries

OSHKOSH (NBC 26) -- More than 1,000 volunteers help pack food for Wisconsin families in need, part of the Eighth Annual Feed the Body, Feed the Soul event in Oshkosh.

Feed the Body, Feed the Soul is a partnership between Oshkosh Corporation and Feeding America.This year's goal is to pack 250,000 pounds of rice. The rice is delivered to community pantries in Eastern Wisconsin.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)

On Thursday, over a thousand volunteers pack bags of rice as fast as they can, trying to reach their goal of packing 250,000 pounds of food.

The boxes of rice are delivered to hundreds of community pantries across Eastern Wisconsin.

"They'll start receiving this rice as soon as tomorrow," Liz Wollenberg, chief strategies officer for Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, says.

Watch the full broadcast story here:

Volunteers pack 250,000 pounds of rice for Eastern Wisconsin food pantries

It's a long day, but one filled with dancing and live music from Dueling Pianos

"Every year I'm dancing," volunteer Erika Kundinger says.

The event was started by Oshkosh Corporation.

"We got a purpose of making a difference in peoples' lives," Bryan Brandt, chief marketing officer for Oshkosh Corp, says.

From custom-building a funnel that portions out the exact amount of rice to a conveyor belt to move the boxes faster, Brandt says the event has developed and grown over the past eight years.

"Every year we add more and more efficiencies to this, and it's a great template that we can use across America, and we're already doing that by doing another event out east, one in France this year," he says.

This is the eighth year hosting the event, and overall, they've packed over a million pounds of food with the help of 6,000 volunteers, according to Brandt.

"Bringing the community together to have a really big impact on fighting hunger," he says.

More information on the event can be found here.