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Efforts to stamp out hunger break record
Middleton Times Tribune - May 17, 2007
by Dietrich Gruen, Middleton Outreach Ministry
Last Saturday, May 12, the National Association of Letter Carriers organized the largest one-day food drive in the nation. This was the 15th year that letter carriers in Middleton participated in this drive, and its local effort also set a new record—on two fronts.
This year over 14,256 pounds of food were collected from the Middleton community and delivered to the Middleton Outreach Ministry. That’s up from 8,500 lbs 12 months ago—thus a new record for stamping out hunger!
What is more, this amount of food happens to be the largest single donation MOM has ever received, besting the 14,144 lbs of food that the Roundy’s Foundation donated in March of 2007.
A HUGE thank-you to everyone who helped make this year’s National Letter Carrier’s Food Drive a great success. I think the good weather in our area and the “stamping out hunger” bags that were handed out made all the difference this time around.
As I drove around to various garage sales on Saturday (one of my favorite pastimes—and the origin of MOM’s Clothing Closet), I could see that white bag after bag was left out for the letter carriers to pick up. That did my heart good. But what is more, it represented your heart-felt concern for our less-fortunate neighbors, such as this family:
A large family is hungry. They don’t have enough resources to pay all of their bills and still provide their family with a healthy meal. Their children need the food to grow, learn and play. The parents equally need the food to work and to care for their children. This family regularly comes to our Food Pantry, is greeted warmly, and is kindly assisted in selecting food from our shelves, refrigerators, and freezers.
A work crew of 36 volunteers worked at least two hours each to help sort and put away the food that night, and still didn’t finish it all. Many postal employees and other community volunteers also donated their time and efforts to make this food drive such a success. Although the National Association of Letter Carriers sponsors this volunteer effort, many other postal employees participated, including the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, members of the American Postal Workers Union, and the National Mail Handlers Union.
Thank you to all who participated through donations of food and time. Without you, this event could not have happened! Your generosity is truly appreciated. Together we helped “stamp out hunger”—at least for another month!
Getting this food is so critical at this time of year, because as summer gets underway the number of families receiving help from the Food Pantry usually goes up, but the number of donations goes down. We need this food to help get us through our dry spell.
Speaking of volunteers, MOM also celebrated 100 volunteers during a Volunteer Appreciation Event May 8 at the Holiday Inn-West, an event once again sponsored in part by The Bruce Company and American Family Insurance, as well as door prizes from Ace Hardware, Wood-Z, and Gifts to Go. Holiday Inn also sponsored this event, with reduced costs, as did an anonymous donor who sponsored a Middleton High School strings quartet, who gave us a taste of heaven.
The volunteers heard testimony from ministry leaders about how their time and talents are making a difference in the community. Listen to one such testimony:
“A single woman and her children are homeless and have been staying on and off with friends. They are hungry, scared and feeling helpless. They come to MOM’s main office, seeking financial help and mentoring, as well as assistance through the many Good Samaritan Programs. They are greeted by a caring volunteer sitting at the front desk, who gives them a warm smile and offers assistance. The volunteer gives the children some paper and crayons to color with while the woman talks with the Housing Counselor. They leave an hour later, feeling blessed to have found MOM, and feeling grateful for the kind people who they met that day who have given them a ray of hope and shown them respect.”
Barb Purcell, one of MOM’s volunteer receptionists, then jumped up to say, “I agree. That’s me. We get the greatest feeling in the world from volunteering at MOM.”
That feeling was shared by 100 others in the room, 25 of whom volunteered 100 hours or more for MOM last year. We have over 900 volunteers total, half of whom work seasonal or on one-time projects, such as major food drives. But another 450 MOM volunteers work regular shifts of one kind or another. We salute all of you, and invite you to join our ranks this summer, especially in our Food Pantry and Clothing Closet. Contact Carole Klopp at 826-3409 or carole@mompop.org.
Ellen Carlson, Kim Grafenauer (both MOM staff) and Susan Meyer, Station Manager of Middleton Post Office, also contributed to this story.
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