ProjectGiveBack.org

Project GiveBack 2010 Roundup

by Daren Briscoe

Hours before the sun rose on Saturday, the 16th annual Project GiveBack Thanksgiving Food Distribution was underway.  At 3 a.m., Project Giveback founder Ransom Miller, logistics coordinator Rick McLean and board member Patrick Stewart were at a food warehouse in Hyattsville, MD, with three empty 24-foot trucks.  By 4:30 a.m., all three trucks, loaded with enough food for more than 1000 families, were pulling up to Bell Mulitcultural High School in Columbia Heights, headquarters for this year’s event. They were met by a team of volunteers which includes a large number of members of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, who have made it a tradition to man the 5 a.m. shift that unloads the food trucks.  By 6 a.m., the walls of Bell High’s cafeteria were lined high with boxed stacks of food; chicken and sweet potatoes, fish fillets, sausage and beef patties, stuffing, celery, and onions, apples and oranges, and 1000 turkeys.   “Everything worked like clockwork,” said Project GiveBack founder Ransom Miller. “This used to be just me and people who knew me, and now it’s people who don’t even know who I am.  It shows that other people have taken ownership and invited their friends and family to be part of it.  That’s what you want, you want everyone to feel like they own it.”  It was an impressive mass of food, even to Project GiveBack volunteer like Samantha Hawkins, who started volunteering 15 years ago, when the program was distributing food to six families.  But as the program has grown, so has the need.  “We only have a certain amount of slots, and we were able to assist a lot more people this year” Hawkins said.  “But with the economy being the way it is, I got a lot of email requests this year.  We got several requests where both parents had lost a job.” By 6:30, more than 600 Project GiveBack volunteers were filling boxes with enough food for two weeks, plus Thanksgiving dinner, for distribution from Bell High’s cafeteria.   “We had people volunteering to deliver meals after they finished packing boxes,” said Project GiveBack media coordinator Wendy Gray. 

From Bell, food deliveries went out across the region; 100 boxes to La Clinica Del Pueblo Community Health Center.  One hundred boxes to Northern Virginia.  One hundred twenty five boxes to military families at Anacostia Naval Station.  Landover, Md., a joint delivery to the Kentland and Glenarden recreation centers.  Fifty boxes to the Barry Farms housing project in Southeast DC.   “There’s no organization like this,” said Patrick Stewart, whose commitment to Project GiveBack began 5 years ago, as a volunteer delivering individual meals to families in need.  Stewart now a Project GiveBack board member, spent most of the day doing bulk deliveries.  Stewart’s day ended with a more personal mission.  When a volunteer returned a box to the distribution center after being unable to deliver it, Stewart raised his hand, and delivered the food to an elderly woman in Northeast Washington.  “She was so appreciative,” Stewart said. “That’s what attracted me to Project GiveBack.”  The program’s founder, Ransom Miller, has seen the food distribution program grow beyond his wildest expectations, but his visions are keeping pace. Sixteen years ago, Project GiveBack delivered food to six families.  Two years ago, the program served 500 families, growing to 900 last year, and 1000 in 2010.  Miller has found that “the more you put yourself out there, the more stories you hear about people in need.  He imagines the effort expanding to Baltimore, Virginia, and points beyond.  “The more you put yourself out there, the more stories you hear,” said Miller.  “It would be cool would be if people did what we’re doing everywhere.”

(Project GiveBack is still accepting donations to help cover the costs of the 2010 Thanksgiving Food Distribution event.  Project GiveBack is currently planning an effort to distribute toys and age appropriate books to low income children over the Christmas Holiday in the DC Area.  For more information visit www.projectgiveback.org)

Visit WTOP.com to see its coverage of the event. Search on keyword giveback or click the following link: http://wtop.com/?sid=2126221&nid=25