Feds Feed Families campaign ends with success

  • Published
  • By Peggy Proffitt, AEDC Contributing Writer
  • AEDC/PA
Arnold Air Force Base (AAFB) has participated in an Air Force wide program called "Feds Feed Families" for the past three years.  This program provides an opportunity for all of us here at Arnold to give back to the surrounding communities.

We coordinate with three local Good Samaritan agencies.  These agencies are non-profit and serve the Tullahoma, Manchester and Decherd communities.

Last year was my first opportunity to help with donation collections for the Feds Feed Families campaign and it was such a rewarding experience, that this year I volunteered to be a point-of-contact for the Junior Force Council!

There are so many families in our area in desperate need of assistance to provide even basic necessities to their children and families, and this program plays a vital role in provid-ing food, school supplies, baby care items and personal hygiene items to those families.

In spite of the many challenges we have faced in the last year, we have been able to maintain the spirit of giving back to our community through the Feds Feed Families Cam-paign. The program normally runs from June through August each year. Although we got off to a late start this year, beginning our collections in late July, we have been able to collect almost 275 pounds of non-perishable food, personal hygiene and baby items to donate to three local Good Samaritan sites.

On Sept. 25, we met with Kathy Pelton, executive director of the Tullahoma Good Samar-itan, Grace Thompson of the Decherd Good Samaritan, Dr. Ralph Jones, who was picking up for his wife Fay Jones the pantry coordinator for the Manchester Good Samaritan, and Patrick Jourdan, the Arnold AFB Commissary Manager to distribute the items so generously donated by caring people at Arnold.

Those of us who worked in the campaign would like to express our great appreciation to all those who gave donations to support this cause as well as to all the volunteers who helped make this year's campaign a success. We also appreciate the cooperation of Jour-dan in allowing us to gather, weigh and store the donations in his warehouse facility at the Commissary until we could distribute them at the end of the campaign.