LA GRANDE — No writing is displayed on these cardboard boxes, but gratitude is written all over the faces of those who receive them.

The boxes are those Andrea Konopacky, a volunteer leader of the Harvest Share food distribution program, hands to more than 70 people each weekday at the Union County Senior Center, La Grande. Each is filled with 20 to 25 pounds of free donated food Konopacky has packed.

Anyone who comes to the senior center can receive a Harvest Share food box. Smiles and expressions of thanks are not required, but Konopacky finds herself awash in gestures of goodwill each day. This despite the fact Harvest Share, a decade-old program, has tighter rules than it did three months ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Previously anyone could walk inside the Harvest Share station at the Union County Senior Center on weekdays and choose from a wide assortment of food, including baked goods and fresh fruit and vegetables. All one had to do was sign in and follow rules limiting how many items could be picked up each day.

That version of Harvest Share, like much of life as we once knew it, has disappeared, at least temporarily.

Today the Harvest Share station inside the Union County Senior Center is closed to the public because of the state’s COVID-19 social distancing rules. Instead the Harvest Share station in the east corner of the senior center serves as a site where Konopacky packs boxes of food early each weekday morning. Then at 8 a.m. she begins distributing the boxes just outside the senior center’s main entrance to people who have called ahead to arrange pickup.

Much of the food provided by Harvest Share, just as it was before the pandemic, is donated by Safeway, Market Place Fresh Foods, the Oroweat warehouse in La Grande and the Oregon Food Bank. Most of the items are tasty but nearing their expiration dates. Many are collected each morning by Andrea’s husband, Steve Konopacky, and Thomas Houck, who are members of the Community Connection of Northeast Oregon’s regional food bank staff.

Andrea Konopacky said the demand for food has increased significantly in the past three months, since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the state to shut down many businesses and put countless people out of work.

“We are busy, busy,” she said. “People are so happy to have food.”

Items provided in food boxes Wednesday include peanut butter, cereal, pancake mix, rice, canned fruit and vegetables and fresh produce. Konopacky, as she does all weekdays, also brings out milk, eggs and fruit juice to those who request it. Her quick wit surfaced when she brought out apple juice Tuesday morning.

“An apple juice a day keeps the doctors away,” she said.

Konopacky once greeted many people coming to Harvest Share with hugs, but that is no longer possible because of social distancing rules. That does not prevent her from playful give-and-take with those she greets.

“I have fun with them. We have a good time,” she said.

Those who came for food Tuesday included Rod Zollman of La Grande who arrived with his 6-month-old Yorkshire terrier named Meghan. Konopacky embraced the tiny dog while holding it in her hands with plastic gloves. The dog was one she greets each day while making Harvest Share distributions. Each time she picks up a pet she must afterward put on a new pair of gloves.

“I go through so many gloves. I love pets,” she said.

The food boxes are meant to last for about two days. Some come every day for new boxes and for good reason.

“They are giving (their food) to shut-ins,” Konopacky said.

She said running Harvest Share is more work now than it was before because so many food boxes need to be assembled and they contain heavy items like canned goods. Still, Konopacky doesn’t seem to mind.

“I love what I do. I love helping people,” Konopacky said.

Konopacky said that in working as a volunteer for Harvest Share she is following the lead of her Polish grandparents who raised her from the time she was 9 months old. She said people often came to their door asking for food and her grandparents never let anyone leave empty-handed.

“They instilled that (the importance of reaching out to others) in me,” Konopacky said.