Photo By Staff Sgt. Jennifer Atkinson | Spc. Rick Davis, from B Troop, 1-24 Cavalry, wraps a pallet of donated dry goods at...... read more read more
Subscribe
Staff Sgt. Jennifer D. Atkinson
56th Inf. Brigade Combat Team, 36 Inf. Div. Public Affairs
WAKO, Texas - A fleet of trucks carrying personnel from the 56th Infantry Brigade Combat Team rolled out across central Texas last week to collect community donations for the Food for Families food drive in Waco, Texas.
Food for Families is a single-day food drive designed to help support food banks servicing the citizens of Central Texas. The event is organized and operated by four partner organizations, Longhorn Council of Boy Scouts of America, H.E.B. Grocery Company, the Texas Army National Guard and KWTX Media in Waco. Approximately fifty soldiers of the 56th Brigade Combat Team were on hand to to help manage and support the temporary distribution station set up at the KWTX headquarters.
“We process the goods, separate them and load them on to pallets, then get them on to trucks,” said 2nd lt. Dillon Orison, B Troop, 1-24 Cavalry.
In its first year, Food for Families collected over 84,000 pounds of food, and this year event organizer Shelley Whitley, KWTX assistant operations manager, hopes to collect one and a half million pounds of food. All donations stay within the county from which they are collected to ensure residents get to help out their neighbors.
It’s not just the tangible things the Guard brings, but the intangible as well. Shelley Whitley believes the Guardsmen, “set the example for the high-school kids, and for the Cub Scouts. It’s really great to have the Guardsmen step up and be big brothers [to the Cub Scouts], setting the example for those little guys.”
Event partners are not the only ones impressed by the Guard’s ability to support the community. This event is the first of its kind for 2nd Lt. Orison, and only his third drill in the Texas National Guard.“Coming from an active-duty family, I never knew much about the guard,” Orison said, “and I’ve never done much community service before this.”
“I think it gets the message out there that we’re here and this is what we’re capable of. We’re capable of doing so many things to help out in the community,” he said. “I think we can all be proud of the job we’re doing out here.”
| Date Taken: | 11.17.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 11.21.2012 12:39 |
| Story ID: | 98232 |
| Location: | WACO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 113 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Guard provides “muscle” for Food for families, by SSG Jennifer Atkinson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
