Food Drive Frolics

49: The percentage of all children in America who are on food stamps at some point by the age of twenty.


I have returned from In-Service Training/Refresher Tax Training in Columbus, and it feels good to be home. Kaitlyn and I wasted no time on Monday, and left pretty early in order to venture to 7 different food drive locations for pick-ups. Some of the places were holding on to their barrels for a little while longer to collect more food, so in those cases we needed to bring several boxes with us. That way we could pack up the contents in the barrels and leave them some room to bring plenty more non-perishables. We managed to fit 21 cardboard boxes on the dolly, and wheeled them out to Gus in just one trip! Check out our "Tetris" skills on the right.

And the boxes only fell once. Maybe twice.

We used the boxes to pick up food from two different Kroger stores and Showcase Cinemas in Springdale.

I'm glad Showcase is doing a food drive with us. They know their marketing. Every Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas, they are offering a free viewing of a holiday movie, as long as you bring in one non-perishable food item for their food drive. Now that's a smart idea! This Saturday, December 19, they're playing one of my favorites--"It's a Wonderful Life." Go see it! Bring some food with you!

The rest of the food drives were long and exhausting, as we had to pick up several barrels full of food at each stop. You'll see a picture of Gus the Bus in front of Seapine Software on the left. I really only included this picture because it seems kind of artsy and I was somewhat proud of it. The picture as well as the parking job.

I drove almost the whole time yesterday. I had a lot to make up for from when I was in crutches. I really don't mind driving Gus anymore. It's even kind of fun. And I'm going to miss doing food drives (somewhat) when it's over. We only have maybe a month left with Gus.

The picture below was taken at Bridgeport Elementary School. We had only taken out one of five barrels when the secretaries informed us that they were about to do a fire drill. We quickly lugged out one of the heavier barrels and got out of there. When we finished our unloading process for that barrel we just had to wait by the truck until the drill was over. What bad timing.

It was a long day yesterday, and very exhausting. We even got an hour of comp time out of it.

Here are the results of the food drives yesterday (that I know of):

Security National in Mason: 630 pounds

Seapine Software in Mason: 380 pounds

Atrium YMCA in Middletown: 150 pounds

Bridgeport Elementary School in Hamilton: ?

Kroger in Fairfield: ?

Kroger in Liberty Township:?

Showcase Cinemas: ?

We went out again today with Gus, but most of our locations were local so it only took us about an hour. Today was just a weird day. Almost every pick-up today was a little off.

Our first pick-up was at Cincinnati Christian school. This one actually went pretty smoothly, though I did have to have Kaitlyn get out of the truck and move a sign out from the middle of the road so we could get through. I'm not sure how illegal that was, but we put it back as soon as we got through. Cincinnati Christian collected 115 pounds of food.

Our second stop was at DNA Diagnostics Center. They had asked for two barrels, but one of them was filled with toys. And we cannot accept toys. We had to wheel the cart to the other side of the building, then they wanted us to wheel the barrel of toys to a room near the entrance. So we had to turn the cart sideways and lug both barrels on top of it, which is no easy feat. We had to empty the toys before we could handle the food.

I mean, really?

The DNA Diagnostics Center collected 200 pounds of food.

We then went to Meadowridge Apartment Complex, where Gus was introduced to speed bumps. No matter how slow I drove, the back of the truck was incredibly bumpy and scary over those death traps.

While Kaitlyn and I were loading the food into the truck, we noticed that they had put these stickers on every single item:

Okay....I really do appreciate that they did a food drive with us. It's great that they collected 145 pounds of food. But this is not an opportunity for free advertising. This is a food drive. And by the time all of this food is sorted out, it is going to be way past the holiday season. So these stickers don't make much sense at all.

Sorry if this came out a little moody. It was just a strange day.