Donna Brooks weighs food donations during the Thanksgiving food drive.
A last-minute idea to help feed the needy over the holidays was a stunning success thanks to the generosity of District staff.
The District donated more than 3,500 pounds of food to local charities in the District. Food donations helped the Love Your Neighbor Soup Kitchen and Mary’s House women’s shelter in Hernando County, Metropolitan Ministries in Hillsborough County, Bartow Church Service Center in Polk County and Arcadia Center for the Needy in DeSoto County.
“I never would have imagined that we could have collected so much food in such a short amount of time,” said Donna Brooks, District Employee Committee vice chair. “So many people helped to make this effort a huge success.”
Offices throughout the District competed to donate the most food. Smaller organizations joined forces to help keep things even. Elaine Kuligofski, Human Resources & Risk Management Bureau chief, offered to treat the winning office to lunch, and the laboratory staff helped weigh boxes of food as they arrived in the Brooksville Headquarters breakroom.
At the end of the contest, the Brooksville Resource Data & Restoration section won, bringing in 33.93 pounds of food per person, or a total of 543 pounds.