Gobert Townsend was under the gun. Already behind schedule, he needed to be on the road to Florida. Big Boy Trucking LLC, the company he works for, operates on a timely manner. Most truck drivers are use to some delays, but he wasn’t held up at a dock or behind a traffic accident. He delivered his load on time to a company in Frederick, Maryland, but they had refused two pallets of the rice that he hauled in from Arkansas. It appeared that the cardboard box holding over a ton of ten-pound bags of rice had broken. The rice was good and still in its individual bags, but they refused it.

Townsend called Riceland Foods, the company that shipped it, and was authorized to throw it or give it away. Most drivers would have dumped it and moved on. He spent the entire day trying to find someone to give it to. When asked why he didn’t throw it away and get back on the road, he replied: “God wouldn’t have appreciated that.”

He called Catholic Charities in Martinsburg, WV, and asked the same question he had been asking all day. Would they be interested in taking over a ton of free rice? “I had plenty of places to send it,” stated Chrissa Cunningham, Regional Director for Catholic Charities. After organizing a group of volunteers and having members of the local Knights of Columbus descend on a parking lot in town, the driver brought the load over. He fought through downtown traffic and put the trailer in a tight spot that was needed for easy unloading. He seemed relaxed for a man that just lost a day of work.

The doors were opened and a line formed to start passing the bags to waiting vehicles. No forklift, just volunteers. This could take awhile. He still remained calm and patient, happy in the fact that people would be fed and the food wouldn’t end up in a dumpster.

“I gave one hundred bags of rice to Sister Mary Ann and one hundred bags to C-Cap, which means two hundred bags of rice went right into the hands of people that needed it,” Cunningham stated. (C-CAP is an organization that assists with emergency relief and also houses Loaves and Fishes which is a food bank.)

“We gave it away to people who come to the parish that Sister Judith knows are in need,” Sister Mary Ann from Catholic Charities in the Rural Outreach and Immigration Program said, when asked what she did with her allotment. This happens once in a while but “not on a regular basis” she noted.

Some bags of rice went to Ray Winiarski, the chef at the Trinity 6:34 program, a place for the homeless, the poor, and anyone else who gather for a free, hot meal every Monday. This program feeds over one hundred people on some Mondays, usually for a cost under ninety cents a plate, but always offered free to those who attend. “I will be making turkey rice casserole, stuffed cabbage, meatloaf with rice, and rice soup, at least one thousand dinners,” he said. When asked who exactly will benefit, he said: “The homeless, the poor, and the elderly will be served a community dinner. Some are families trying to stretch their food budget.” A common theme it seems.

Melanie Files, Director of Loaves and Fishes, stated that over forty-seven percent of the children in the Berkeley County School System are eligible for free or reduced price meals. One teacher in Preston County, West Virginia, noted a young student who was somewhat disappointed about Thanksgiving break. When he asked the student what was wrong, he was told: “Well the only time I get to eat is when I come to school.” Maybe that’s why she shared some with the Boys and Girls Club who feed school children every day after school and at times when school is not in session.

Files went on to say: “I’m sure some adults are cutting back to two meals a day.” As she arrived at the scene where the truck was unloaded, she thought there were only a couple of bags. “I looked at it and Oh my God!” she reacted. What did she do with the rest of her allotment of rice? She offered it to five / six families (that’s C-CAP/Loaves and Fishes lingo for families with five or more people in the house); she shared some with the Meals On Wheels, as well as Berkeley Senior Services.

Just like other nonprofit organizations, Files has seen a growing demand on her services. She sees an average of twenty families a day in need of food. She had 171 additional families in crises in 2009 over 2008.

Cunningham stated that if other drivers or companies are faced with the same situation, even if they can’t deliver it to the office door, “We’ll take it – it doesn’t matter, we’ll find a way.”

One act of kindness from a tired truck driver, running behind schedule, has provided food for hundreds of people. This is charity in its finest form.

2.01.10
DJ McCoy