Peggy Weiner joked she wanted to be Michelle Obama's new interior designer.

Her best friend, Nancy Carlson, quipped she wanted to become the Obama's pediatrician.

Weiner's daughter, Lilly, dreamed of moving into the White House to live with the Obamas.

The three women from Denver set aside their pipe dreams, for now, and decided to find other ways to serve the Obamas. The trio joined 50 volunteers at the Food Bank of the Rockies and spent Monday afternoon packaging food boxes that will be sent pantries in Northern Colorado to help families struggling to make ends meet.

"I have such a renewed excitement in the possibility of taking our government and country back," said Weiner, 49, an interior designer from Denver. "When I got the e-mails about today being a day of giving back and service, I was inspired to step up. There is a deep hunger in us to give back. I see it in many Americans since Obama's victory and it goes to our best selves."

Carlson said she had never volunteered for a food bank before Monday's National Day of Service in honor of Barack Obama's inauguration and Martin Luther King Jr.

That changed after she became inspired by Michelle Obama's work with food banks in Chicago.

"I watched the video in which Obama reinforced his message that for real change to take place it needs all of us to act, it just can't be government's responsibility," Carlson said.

— April M. Washington