A little over nine years ago, then-Park City High baseball player Ben Agnew approached the school about starting up a large-scale holiday meal packaging event. Agnew and his family had been doing so on a smaller scale for a few years. 

The school’s athletic director Jamie Sheetz said “absolutely,” and the Park City High Holiday Meals Project was born. 

Now, Park City High is making final preparations for the ninth installation of the charity event. They are still accepting a few additional volunteers on their SignUpGenius web page. 

Volunteers will gather at 10 a.m. Saturday in the school cafeteria. They will swiftly package over 1,000 meals and then send them off on delivery routes across Park City, Salt Lake City and sometimes as far as Wyoming. 

Park City High’s Especially for Athletes club and National Honor Society, as well as the Christian Center of Park City, are heavily involved. 

Sheetz said that Agnew first approached him, saying “‘Hey, my family has done this meals project during the holidays for the last few years,  do you think we could get a group involved to grow it?’”

The Holiday Meals Project has always been held on the Saturday right after school lets out for Christmas Break. Sheetz appreciates all the volunteers choosing to spend their time packaging meals. The volunteer base has helped the event grow every year. 

Park City High expects to hit their 1,000 meal goal for the first time this year. Their event has inspired Wasatch High to host a similar event. Sheetz hopes that other schools will follow suit. He didn’t rule out a potential friendly competition in the future. 

“It’s amazing,” he added. “We normally start at 10 a.m. and are done putting the meals together by like 10:20 a.m. It’s just fast — really good volunteer turnout.”

The event makes Sheetz proud to live in Park City and work for the school. He said the community often fundraises swiftly and strongly for the meal packaging. Park City High’s fundraising goal this year was $25,000.

“No matter what religion you are, food is a common thread among all of us this time of year,” Sheetz said. “To be able to help with that for families I think is pretty cool. … People are very thankful that our kids are that generous.”

For any additional information or questions, people are welcome to reach out to James Agnew at [email protected].