Many Communities Created With Just One Rescue
By Mari Jackson, Food Rescue US – Fairfield County Volunteer
I thought it would be fun to document all the full range of communities created with just one Food Rescue. For me, it’s not just the delivery of the rescued food that creates an impact in my local Trumbull community, it begins and is created at all touch points in the rescue process.
A Long Friendship, Rekindled With Purpose
A friendship that started 16 years ago at a local Trumbull preschool, my friend Kate Kunkel and I have recently reunited with a mutual desire to volunteer in town, and have decided to collaborate on this rescue. We look forward to our regular rescues to catch up in the car to and from the pick-up as well as doing something important. When delivering the food to the Trumbull Food Panty, we have bumped into the former preschool director at the Senior Center who is just thrilled to see our friendship continuing and involving a give back, a value important to the preschool.
Our Rescue for the Day
Once we arrive at Shoprite, we are greeted by welcoming staff, Tammy and Joe (pictured) plus others, who have showed us the layout of receiving the food items for donations and have even showed us the success of their Blue Earth Compost pick up and farm pick up. Seeing this store’s commitment to tackling food waste is admirable and we look forward to pitching in their process. And added bonus is overlapping with fellow rescuers, such as Julia Rosenbaum, united by the same mission to help and give back. These relationships are icing on the cake.
Trumbull Food Pantry
And the final leg of this food rescue, the arrival at the Trumbull Food Pantry, is just the ultimate close to the food rescue loop. The ladies working in the pantry greet us with big smiles and open arms to help unload and weigh the delivery. We have a friendly competition to see who can be the closest guess to the total rescue weight. We catch up with the pantry on their latest programs and anything new in their lives and if we are lucky we get to see big smiles and receive “thanks” from the first of the shoppers arriving at the pantry for the day.
Kate and I leave, rushing to get on with the other demands of our day, but with a feeling of reward and joy, seeing a success program and process touching so many of us in the Trumbull community.