Renee Sanders has two pieces of advice for those who participate in Friday’s United Way of Lowndes County food drive distribution: Bring an ID that proves you are a resident of Lowndes County and make sure you have enough room in your car.
“I don’t want people thinking they’re just going to get a bag of food,” said Sanders, the United Way chapter director. “We’re going to be handing out a substantial amount of food, enough for the whole household.”
Thanks to an unspecified donation by an anonymous local company (Sanders would only say the donation was in excess of $20,000) and another $20,000 from the United Way’s own fundraising, the organization will provide what Sanders hopes will be in excess of 750 food packages, enough to feed 3,000 people.
Sanders said United Way will offer a food drive in Noxubee County later this month.
On Friday, the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office will work with the United Way, providing traffic control, help with distribution and serving as the staging location at its office at 527 MLK Jr. Drive in the Sandfield Community.
“United Way asked us to partner with them,” Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said. “It’s a perfect opportunity for us to get more involved in the community and provide the services that these families are needing at this time.”
The East Columbus Lions Club will assist with the transportation of dozens of pallets of food from the United Way’s warehouse to the sheriff’s office. Lions Club volunteers also will help organize and distribute the food.
“We do have some experience with this kind of thing,” said Lions Club member Andy Kalinowski. “When we had the tornado in Columbus (in February 2019), our national foundation provided over $10,000 in food and our club distributed that. In fact, we used the United Way’s warehouse. We’ve been working with the United Way for years now. They’ve assisted us with our programs and we’ve assisted them with theirs. We’re thrilled to have such a good partner as the United Way.”
Sanders said she has 88 volunteers signed up to help with the drive but hopes to have 100 before the distribution begins at 9 a.m. Friday.
The goal, she said, was to provide food for as many people as possible.
“It’s not income-based and you don’t have to prove you’ve lost your job or anything,” she said. “Really, all you need is your ID. And if you have a neighbor or family member or friend who can’t drive, if you bring their IDs, we’ll fill their order, too. People can walk up, too, if they live close by. But they may have to make more than one trip.”
Sanders said the amount of food provided will be based on the number of people living in the household.
Those who want food should line up on Airline Road, where they will be directed by sheriff’s department personnel.
“We’re so excited to be able to do this,” Sanders said. “We appreciate the donors, the sheriff’s department and the Lions Club. We couldn’t do this without their help.”
Sanders urged people to arrive early.
“We are going to start at 9, but we don’t know how long we’ll be there,” she said. “We’ll be giving out food until we either run out or people stop coming.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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