By Gary Lloyd
TRUSSVILLE — A community-wide food drive in Trussville begins Saturday, Feb. 8.
The fifth annual “Love Your Neighbor” food drive is being held in conjunction with Valentine’s Day, and a kickoff is Feb. 8 from 9 a.m. to noon in the parking lot at First United Methodist Church of Trussville.
“We try to make it easy for people in our ‘drive-through world’ to donate, so on that Saturday, people can actually drive into the parking lot, drop off their non-perishable items to volunteers, and then drive on out,” said Trussville Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Diane Poole. “They don’t even have to get out of their cars.”
Specific items that are particularly needed include personal hygiene items, cooking oil, flour, corn meal, sugar, canned meat and fish, dried beans, cereal, breakfast food, peanut butter, jelly, saltines, and macaroni and cheese. Other immediate needs include not only volunteers but also a larger building in which to house and distribute their donated items.
T.E.A.M. volunteers sort non-perishable items during a past food drive.
submitted photo
“We wanted to use the Valentine’s Day theme of love to remind people to ‘love their neighbor’ and to help those in need,” said Trussville Ecumenical Assistive Ministry volunteer Louise Jensen.
T.E.A.M. assists those in the immediate Trussville area who are in need of food, clothing and other necessities during difficult financial times.
“Many people think of helping others during the holidays but they sometimes forget that some people need help all during the year,” Jensen said. “We hope this food drive will bring an awareness to donate these items all year long.”
A total of 210 bags of food were collected at the kickoff last year. In all, more than 1,600 bags of food were collected. This year’s goal is to collect 2,000 bags, which would help T.E.A.M. provide food until the fall.
Drop-off locations include participating T.E.A.M. churches, the Trussville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Trussville Fire Station on Main Street, McSweeney Foundation/MCM Custom Vehicles, RealtySouth on Main Street, Southern Bullion Coin and Jewelry, Massey Stotser & Nichols PC, Anytime Fitness and T.E.A.M. All locations will accept donations Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during that week. Most of the participating churches will also conduct drives on Sunday, Feb. 9.
For more information, call the Trussville Area Chamber of Commerce at 205-655-7535.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.
