On Saturday morning, April 7, United Food Operation completed its 12-week winter food distribution program. We will be gearing up again in May for the Letter Carriers “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive. Watch for it on Saturday, May 12.
Help is needed to obtain nice, new donated items for the Bid Away Hunger event on March 25. Donated items will be used as either silent auction items or game prizes.
Bid Away Hunger is a fundraiser held at Louie’s Lounge of Mardi Gras Casino in Cross Lanes, WV. The event includes a silent auction and fun and games for participants. A small admission charge gets you in the door. Hors d’oeuvres will be included and there will be a cash bar. All money raised goes to support food distributions of United Food Operation.
Event organizer Misti Davis says that just about anything will work. “No item is too big or too small.”
When collecting an item, please obtain the name of donating business/person, person authorizing it, contact number, and retail value of item. Donation acknowledgement thank-you letters will be sent out to the donors.
Davis says you can also collect a few smaller monetary donations and purchase an auction item or buy a few smaller items that can used as game prizes or packaged with other items.
“I have donation letters and flyers I can bring to you,” says Davis. “If there is anyone I can reach out to, let me know.”
“We are on our way to another successful Bid Away Hunger,” said Davis, who is working hard to top last year’s fund raising effort.
Contact Misti Davis at memitz.davis@yahoo.com
2:00 – 5:00 p.m.
March 25, 2018
Louie’s Lounge
Mardi Gras Casino
Cross Lanes, WV
United Food Operation completed its first weekend of food distributions for 2018 with a flurry of activity. Activities began Friday and concluded on Saturday.
Early Friday morning, food was sorted into pantry portions with help from a crew of volunteers from the Nitro Food Pantry. Earlier in the week the food was purchased and delivered to the warehouse so it could be sorted. Donated foods are also sorted. The first week’s foods included a large amount of cans and other non-perishable food from a collection conducted by Dutch Miller Auto of South Charleston.
Then at 10:00 a.m., Elaine Harris, UFO’s chairperson, and a group of guests and volunteers conducted the winter kick-off ceremony at the warehouse.
This season’s food distribution program was dedicated in honor of Clifford Means, a longtime UFO volunteer who also serves as the group’s vice chair. In recent years, Cliff has been employed as a machinist by Bayer CropScience, Institute Plant, which is closing out its operations at the Institute Industrial Park later this year.
Cliff’s honor was announced by Connie Stewart, a manager at Bayer CropScience. During her tenure, Stewart has also done much to assist the UFO program. Since Bayer began operating in Institute, the company has been a strong supporter of UFO. Along with Dow Chemical, Bayer was instrumental in helping UFO obtain the permanent facility it now uses as its headquarters and food distribution center.
Brian Aluise, of U.S. Senator Joe Manchin’s office, congratulated the group’s efforts on behalf of the Senator. He said UFO’s efforts were greatly appreciated.
Chris Shinault and Andrew Ricks of SGS Petroleum Services Corp. were recognized for their company’s commitment to provide UFO with qualified fork lift operators for the distribution season. MH Equipment of Cross Lanes was thanked for donating the use of a nice forklift. MH Rents also donated the forklift last year.
Among those attending the ceremony were many United Food Operation volunteers and food pantry workers. Members of the news media were also there to cover the event.
On Saturday morning, pantry and UFO volunteers braved the cold, snowy conditions to load up pantry vehicles with donated foods. the 2018 food distribution program was officially underway.
The United Food Operation planning team met at IVS Hydro in Institute, WV, to start organizing the 2018 food drive and distribution program.
The dates for the 2018 campaign are:
Organization Summit with the Pantries: Wednesday, November 24, 2017 at 9:00 AM. Institute Industrial Park, Building 507 Room 202. Call the UFO office for more details: (304) 342-2023
Kickoff Celebration: Friday, January 12
Skip Week: March 30-31
Final Distribution and Thank-You Breakfast: Saturday, April 7
The team decided to host a Bid Away Hunger fundraising auction and party at Mardi Gras Casino again this year. The date will be announced later.
The planning team was encouraged by the over $36,000 already collected and in the bank for the 2018 food distribution program. The group hopes to add another $30,000 to that by the end of the year. Contacts are being made with area businesses who have supported the UFO food drives in the past.
Contributions to the 2018 food drive pay for food that is distributed to 12 food pantries in Kanawha and Putnam counties. As an all volunteer group operating out of donated warehouse space and using donated equipment, UFO uses all the funds donated by employees and businesses to purchase food, not overhead or salaries.
New members of the planning team this year were Misti Davis, Karen Snyder, and Carl Chadband. They all contributed welcomed new energy to the group.
The group heard a report about upgrades to the UFO distribution center. BayerCrop Science has completed painting the warehouse floor and it looks great. Dow Chemical has scheduled repairs and improvements to the rest room facility, which will be finished before the end of the year.
The next planning committee meeting is:
Oct 24, 2017 at 1:00 PM at IVS Hydro in Institute.
Wow. What a great outpouring of support from the people of Kanawha and Putnam counties. Fifty thousand pounds worth.
The volunteers who make up United Food Operation and its affiliated food pantries are so thankful for the donations made to the Stamp Out Hunger food drive, May 13, 2017, conducted by members of the National Association of Letter Carriers. Continue reading 50,000 pounds of donated food is a blessing
It’s late spring and the weather is getting nice. Spirits are up. Flowers are blooming. Plenty of outdoor activities draw your attention. It’s easy to forget that your local food pantry still needs your help.
That’s the beauty of the Stamp Out Hunger food drive conducted by the National Association of Letter Carriers and the United States Postal Service. It’s a poignant reminder at just the right time. This year’s food drive took place on May 13.
The need for food from our pantries has been pretty much at an all time high over the past winter months. The large-scale food resources that supply pantries are not really keeping up with the increased need we’ve seen.
The supply of food from large governmental food banks and national charitable organizations, while important, does not come close to meeting the true need of food pantries in our community. Local pantries depend on the generosity of the local community — of local folks who donate their dollars and canned goods all year around. Without the little people who bring over a few cans of tuna or few dollars they made at a bake sale, many local food pantries would close and many others would barely get by.
The Letter Carriers annual food drive brings home this point maybe better than any other large event. It communicates the need and says every little bit helps. Every little bit is important. The Letter Carriers reach out to all sectors of the community — urban, suburban and rural areas — to everyone who gets mail. No other food drive has this kind of reach.
And from the efforts of Letter Carriers and their allies, thousands of pounds of food are donated, collected, and then distributed to local food pantries where it is put to use serving the needy in our community. This donated food is a godsend, just ask anyone associated with one of our local food pantries.
United Food Operation want to sincerely thank members of Local 531 of the National Association of Letter Carriers for another great food drive. Letter Carrier R.D. Henson did a great job in his first year coordinating the program. Thanks also go out to all the other groups that cosponsored or otherwise helped out this wonderful effort.
The National Association of Letter Carriers food drive takes place in the Charleston region this Saturday, May 13. Please don’t forget to fill a bag with food and set it out near your mailbox on Saturday morning.
Arriving in mail boxes all around the region today and tomorrow are brown paper grocery bags designed to be filled with healthy,non-perishable foods and left by your mailbox Saturday morning. Your letter carrier will pick up the bag of food as he or she delivers your mail.
Again this year the United Mine Workers of America have donated thousands of brown paper grocery bags. That is a great help to the food drive because past experience has shown that more folks donate food when they have a special bag to put it in. The bags also serve as a reminder to not forget to do it.
All the donated food will be delivered back to the central post office by day’s end, where it is loaded into bins and then trucked to the United Food Operation warehouse in Institute. Over the next several days, the food is sorted and made ready for pick up by 12 local food pantries in Kanawha and Putnam counties.
The St. Albans Women of the Moose held a food drive at the Lodge with all food collected going to United Food Operation. The donations were presented to Joe Gresham, UFO’s warehouse manager, from members of Loyal Order of the Moose #868 and the Women of the Moose #857.
Members of Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 2001 donated around 25,000 pounds of food during the final five weeks of the United Food Operation (UFO) winter food distribution program. This massive influx of food allowed the program to end its seasonal distribution on a positive note.
UFO had feared that it would not get through its 12-week food distribution season this year without severe cutbacks in food quantity toward the end. The CWA donations kept that from happening.
UFO chairperson Elaine Harris lauded the efforts of the CWA members.
“It made a huge difference.,” Harris said.
The CWA members, who are employed by Frontier Communications in the Charleston WV area, performed all kinds of fundraising strategies on and off the workplace. Then, they vigorously shopped sales at area grocery chains to stretch every dollar to its maximum and also to obtain some matching donations and extra discounts from the stores.
Joe Gresham, manager of UFO’s warehouse, said it was amazing and inspirational to see the food roll in. CWA brought in 28 pallets loaded with about 43,000 food items. Gresham said the CWA food allowed the UFO program to end this year in the black.
Representatives of the 12 local food pantries supported by UFO said the extra food was so welcomed. They were especially appreciative that CWA took the time to find out the items most needed by the pantries before they went shopping. This ensured that the items donated would not go to waste.
United Food Operation is blessed with so many great people and businesses donate who so freely donate of their time and money. We could always use more, but the ones we have are golden.
Beyond the CWA members, some volunteer stars of last weekend include Girl Scout Troop 2384 of Dunbar, WV; forklift operator Jerry Miller of SGS Petroleum Services; and MH Equipment of Cross Lanes, WV that donated the use of the forklift for the season. These are the kinds of efforts that make all the difference.
Come join us for an afternoon of fun while we raise money to fight hunger in Kanawha & Putnam counties. All proceeds will go to purchase food for 12 local community food pantries.
We will have games, prizes, and a Silent Auction.
Louie’s Lounge
Mardi Gras Casino & Resort
Cross Lanes, WV
Entry fee: $5
Games can be played for a small donation.
Cash bar wil be available.
Light snacks & entertainment provided.
The Silent Auction will include items from:
For more information call Misti at 304-419-1672 or Karen at 304-552-8103 or send email to memitz.davis@yahoo.com .
