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.
CWA donations filled the warehouse
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.
We love our volunteers. Thank you.
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.
