Food Drive Benefits Norman ACS
NORMAN, OKLA. – Stamp Out Hunger®, the country’s largest single-day food drive, provides residents with an easy way to donate food to community members in need. While delivering mail on May 11, the nation’s 175,000 letter carriers collected non-perishable food donations left by residents near their mailboxes.
As they do every year, the Norman Adventist Community Services (ACS) volunteers met at the post office’s loading dock that afternoon to assist postal employees and other local charities with receiving and weighing food from the incoming postal trucks. Once food was weighed and loaded onto private trucks belonging to local charities, ACS volunteers hauled food to the Norman Seventh-day Adventist Church, where volunteers spent several hours sorting and boxing it. Receiving this annual infusion of food helps reduce the amount of food that must be purchased during the year. Donning the recognizable ACS T-shirts, our volunteers have built a positive working relationship with the postal service and other organizations in the community.
The Norman ACS outreach distributes food, clothing and personal care items to neighbors in need on the third, fourth and fifth Tuesdays of each month from 9 a.m. until noon. Individuals may use these services three times per year. Local ACS Director Carol Buckmaster, Carolyn Longhofer and other volunteers also provide sheets, blankets, quilts, pillows, towels and cleaning supplies to families.
A few years ago, the ACS ministry purchased a retired classroom building and converted it to a dedicated space of service to the community. In addition to basic services, the ACS volunteers make sure each client receives encouraging written material they can read later. Many times, the volunteers offer kind words of wisdom and prayer for struggling clients when they come in for help.
Among families in crisis that ACS helped was a family of five living in their car who came to the pantry and clothes closet after having been evicted from their apartment when they complained about mold. They had no place to cook, so ACS let them go through the pantry and select items that had pop-top cans containing fruits, soups and vegetables. Buckmaster says, “They were very appreciative that we had made their circumstances more livable.”
By Mark A. Pelfrey
