Volunteers help deliver relief for food needs

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AIMEE AMBROSE | THE GOSHEN NEWSMichael Aimone (center) carries a bag of frood from a postal truck to the family van at the Aspen Meadows apartment complex in Goshen as he, his sister Olivia and mother Erica volunteer to collect donations as part of the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive Saturday.

AIMEE AMBROSE | THE GOSHEN NEWSCarts of food line up at the Salvation Army, 1013 N. Main St., to be weighed and sorted after volunteers collected the donated goods during the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive Saturday.

AIMEE AMBROSE | THE GOSHEN NEWS(from left) Carol Simmons, Goshen, hands a bag of donated food to Jim Froelich, Goshen, to be weighed at the Salvation Army, 1013 N. Main St., in Goshen. The two were among the volunteers who helped during the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive Saturday.

AIMEE AMBROSE | THE GOSHEN NEWSMichael Aimone loads a bag of food into a van at the Aspen Meadows apartment complex in Goshen as he, his sister Olivia and mother Erica volunteer to collect donations as part of the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive Saturday.

GOSHEN — Volunteers fanned out across Goshen and throughout Elkhart County Saturday, serving sort of as sidekicks for postal workers by helping gather food for needy local families.

The National Association of Letter Carriers led the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, in which residents were provided bags, encouraged to fill them with food and place the donations at their mailboxes to be picked up.

Squads of volunteers in Goshen, organized by the United Way of Elkhart County and coordinated by the Salvation Army, stepped up to join postal workers in the endeavor. These so-called “bag buddies” assisted by either collecting the bags of food along mail routes or providing letter carriers some physical relief.

“People in our community are so generous that the postal trucks can’t carry all the food. So the ‘bag buddies’ go along the route and help pick up that food or could even unload the postal trucks,” said Bill Rieth, president and CEO of the local United Way.

Erica Aimone of Goshen and her two children, Michael and Olivia, offered both types of help. The family first gathered bags from a few neighborhoods on the east side around the Elkhart County Fairgrounds.

After delivering their first load back to the Salvation Army, 1013 N. Main St., the three went back out to the Aspen Meadows apartment complex and met up with a postal worker there. Michael and Olivia then helped haul bags and boxes of food from the truck into their mother’s van.

The family, as members of the Salvation Army, participated in Stamp Out last year. They wanted to help again this weekend because Aimone believes volunteering is the right thing, she said.

“It’s a good one to get everybody involved because you don’t have to go anywhere to help. All you have to do is put food outside. Anybody can do that,” Erica Aimone said of the food drive as a community event.

Her 9-year-old son then chimed in by explaining the event also gave people an opportunity to donate unwanted goods instead of throwing them away.

“It’s not wasting food. It’s actually giving it to the Salvation Army to give to hungry people,” Michael Aimone said.

Erica Aimone added her children participate in youth groups at the Salvation Army, and they earn badges by helping with social work projects.

“We trust in God, so we have to go to church. And the Salvation Army was in this area where we live, so we said might as well go here,” Michael Aimone said.

Hundreds of volunteers helped with the 27th annual Stamp Out Hunger event, Rieth said. He estimated around 500, based on a rough calculation he made in his head. Most worked Saturday by gathering and sorting food, while other groups from Lippert Components Inc. and NIBCO Inc. did prep work by stapling 60,000 postcards to the bags that were delivered to homes ahead of the event.

“This is a way as a community to live together, to come together and work together to help one another. I get pumped. I am so excited that in one day we can do something incredible,” Rieth said.

In addition to Goshen, volunteers worked in Elkhart, Nappanee and Middlebury, he said.

The goal was to raise 90,000 pounds of food this year and surpass last year’s total of 80,000 pounds. Local businesses had already donated more than 4,000 pounds of food by the time the food drive started this weekend, Rieth said.

After collecting the donations, volunteers delivered them to the Salvation Army where the food was weighed and sorted. The food will then be distributed to 13 local pantries and meal sites. Rieth described the event as gathering three months’ worth of food in one day.

The service helps restock pantry shelves after food donations from Christmas and the holiday season start running low, said Major Tim Sell of the Salvation Army.

“This stocks us up for the summer months, especially when kids are home from school, and some families haven’t budgeted or planned for the financial impact,” Sell said.

While the local economy is in a good place, Sell said, he pointed out the need for assistance has increased since last year.

“We’ve had some extended shutdowns in manufacturing compared to a year ago, and that has affected some families in ways they did not expect,” Sell said. “When they’re hurting, they’re really hurting.”

Locations to benefit from the food drive include: The Window in downtown Goshen, Bristol Food Pantry, Christ’s Commissary/Harvest Basket, Church Community Services, St. John’s Food Pantry, Susanna’s Kitchen, Faith Mission, Family Christian Development Center, Guidance Ministries, Open Door and the Middlebury Food Pantry.

Local sponsors of Stamp Out included Lippert’s Acts of Service, Martin’s Supermarkets, NIBCO, American Electric Power, Penske and Mapletronics, Rieth said.

Aimee Ambrose can be reached at aimee.ambrosegoshennews.com or 574-533-2151, ext. 316.