AEDC Junior Force Council spearheads Feds Feed Family's food drive

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  The Arnold Engineering Development Complex's (AEDC) Junior Force Council (JFC) recently concluded the 4th annual Feds Feed Families (FFF) food drive. It was the second year the JFC has held the drive on base.

The FFF food drive is an initiative of the 'Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act,' signed into law April 21, 2009.

Patty Stiggins, an AEDC turbine test project manager and JFC FFF coordinator, said, "The fourth annual campaign started June 1 and ended Aug. 31. The Good Samaritans have been extremely thankful for all the donations from AEDC."

Carrie Reinholtz, AEDC's technology project manager in the test technology branch, is a JFC member and the organization's former president.

Stiggins and Reinholtz agree that the team work between AEDC's participants and local Good Samaritan groups made this years' FFF food drive a worthwhile effort.

2nd Lt. Carl Tegtmeier, an AEDC turbine test project manager and JFC volunteer, said, "I know that it's a really rough time right now. It's important for us to help out folks who are less fortunate."

Timothy White Keller, a Tullahoma Good Samaritan Outreach Program volunteer since 2004, came to the base commissary during the FFF drive to pick up non-perishable food and hygiene items, donations the JFC had collected from their AEDC coworkers.

"We're very grateful for what the base has done for the Good Samaritan, especially with food drives like this - it helps us to reach out to the people in Tullahoma who are really in need," Keller said. "Something else that I can say about AEDC is that we've always had Air Force people come and volunteer to do work with us. I mean anything from painting, helping mow the lawn, to doing just some light work. We've been very blessed to have Arnold [Air Force] Base here to really take us under their wings and support us."

Josh Meeks, a member of AEDC's plans and programs division, is the Junior Force Council's current president. He said the recently concluded FFF food drive is only one way the group is reaching out to local communities.

"We led the AEDC support effort to the local Special Olympics event this year and are joining forces with another local charity to provide food for the less fortunate," Meeks said.