Day 54: Food Drop

In honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holidays, my super-generous colleagues decided to organize a company-wide food drive supporting the Atlanta Food Bank. This food bank, along with so many others, has been completely strapped this year and in desperate need of donations.

When it came time to make the delivery, I offered myself and my SUV to help make the drop off. This certainly wasn't the first time I've ever participated in a food drive, but Day 54's thing I've never done before was to deliver the food to the food bank.

I anticipated a well-run operation at the Atlanta Food Bank, which it was. I did not, however, expect it to be so busy! There were cars dropping off, cars picking up, and a whole lot of foot traffic for 9am on a Friday morning.

Our two week effort yielded around 970 pounds of food, which I'm told eventually increased to 1000 pounds. When a supervisor was told how close we came to reaching a half ton, he took it upon himself to make up the difference.

According to the volunteers at the food bank, a meal requires 1.3 pounds of food to make. So, assuming we made it to 1000 pounds, our department provided 769 meals to families in Atlanta over the Thanksgiving holidays. As impressive and helpful as that was, within just days this food would be gone and the food bank would need more. Food is one of the many things that I take for granted that I will always have, often in abundance. I cannot even begin to imagine being forced to wonder where my next meal is coming from, a reality that so many people face everyday.

A more hands-on volunteer effort may be in order to really make this day count, but it was eye-opening to see the Atlanta Food Bank.