Feds fight hunger in local community

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Lance Pounds | Lead military pay tech Latoya Wattley from the Defense Military Pay office on post, places items donated in support of the sixth annual Feds Feed Families Food Drive campaign on a scale at the Army Community Services office in the Rivers building here. The combined weight of all of the donated items is recorded and sent to the DOD Feds Feed Families reporting team for nationwide totaling. (Photo by Sgt. Lance Pounds, 13th Public Affairs Detachment)  

FORT HOOD, TX, UNITED STATES

07.22.2014

Story by Sgt. Lance Pounds 

13th Public Affairs Detachment

FORT HOOD, Texas – Defense Department employees post wide donate food and other non-perishable items in support of the sixth annual Feds Feed Families Food Drive campaign July 18 at the Army Community Services office located inside the Rivers building here.

“Each week we target a different food category to help motivate others to donate,” said Leslie Ingram, a military pay tech at the Defense Military Pay office on post, whose competitive strategy proved effective as her team donated more than 560 pounds in one week.

All collected donations are weighed at the time of drop off. The weight is then recorded and sent to the DOD Feds Feed Families reporting team for nationwide totaling.

Most of the donations collected during the campaign will be sent to the Capital Area Food Bank, which serves more than 700 food pantries, soup kitchens and other service organizations in the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland.

Donations collected here will in turn be distributed food pantries in the local area.

“I challenge my friends and family to help me give back to our own [local food pantries],” said Ingram. She also stated that her personal goal is to donate her own body weight in non-perishable items before the end of the campaign.

Special recognition in the DOD Feds Feed Families Hall of Fame is given to those who, individually or as a team, make large contributions. Recognition begins at contributions of 250 pounds for Hall of Fame status, 500 pounds for Gold level status, and 1,000 pounds or more for Platinum level status.

According to the DOD, no government-wide collection goal has been released but every donation, big or small, will be significant in the lives of those families in need.

To date, federal employees have donated more than 24 million pounds of food and other non-perishable items in support of families all across America.

• Date Taken: 07.22.2014
• Date Posted: 07.23.2014 10:43
• Story ID: 136975
• Location: FORT HOOD, TX, US