Disney employees give back to local communities for day of service

COMMERCE, Calif. (KABC) -- Employees at The Walt Disney Company geared up and teamed up for a day of service.

David Wright, who works in casting for Disney, was hard at work on the assembly line at the L.A. Regional Food Bank Thursday morning.

"We're putting a bunch of food in boxes for people in need. This is about my eighth year doing this type of thing. I love that our company does it. Not only does it give us the opportunity to help others in the community, but also, a lot of these people, we haven't met before. Walt Disney Television is a big group, and for us to actually be here together and kind of working together, I'm telling you, it brings us a lot closer. So this is great," he said.

Courtney Morra, manager of marketing and communities at the L.A. Regional Food Bank, said volunteers' efforts are crucial to helping the community.

"We serve approximately 28,000 seniors every single month with a food kit like they're putting together today, and we would not be able to do this work without volunteers," Morra said.

One of the groups chose to volunteer at the L.A. Regional Food Bank by packaging nutrition kits that will end up in the hands of seniors.

"The Disney volunteers program has been in existence for over 35 years and we've contributed over 11 million hours across communities in 42 countries since the program began," said Elissa Margolis, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Social Responsibility at The Walt Disney Company.

The food bank teams up with Eyewitness News every year for the Feed SoCal food drive. Every month the organizations helps provide food to more than 300,000 people.

"I love it. I think its's great to be able to help," said Clerinda Briones, who was volunteering alongside her Disney colleagues for the first time.

You can learn more about the L.A. Regional Food Bank here.

Disney is the parent company of ABC7.