A Day In The Life Of Our Food-A-Bago Food Drive

What an adventure it has been. I look forward to the 8 day Food-A-Bago food drive for Broome County CHOW (Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse) that we have every year in the first week of November.

At this time of the year, camping season has ended for me, but having a travel trailer to work out of for a week during our Food-A-Bago food drive, extends my stay in campers.

But more importantly, it's all about being here to accept donations in non-perishable or monetary form to assist families in Broome County. And so far (as of Friday), my expectations have been far exceeded.

Covid-19 could have put a huge dent in the amount of donations we would receive, but so far that has not the case, even without the grocery cart challenge that we shelved this year because of Covid-19 issues.

How does our day go you may ask? Glad you asked. It begins just before 7 a.m. when I arrive to open up the travel trailer and Broome County CHOW's huge truck. The truck has a lift to help us get groceries into 12 large bins ready to be filled with non-perishable food.

Once that all is done, I make my calls to our radio stations with an update from the day before. And every morning the news has been great in terms of donations. Radio personalities from all our radio stations take turns spending time at Food-A-Bago, greeting people who have stopped by to donate.

This year, we decided it would be best to store the food in the CHOW truck rather than the camper. It saves us a lot of time and sore backs when the final day comes and we would need to unload the camper of tons of food into a CHOW truck.

I think the best part of this food drive is getting the opportunity to meet our listeners, see the joy in their faces (through masks, of course) knowing that they have done a great thing by donating whatever they can to help families in need.

It's great to have a one on one conversation with people from our community, who we might otherwise never have met, and it's been a pleasure speaking with everyone.

As each day ends for our food drive, I sit here for a few minutes before leaving for home, and think about how amazing the day turned out. In this time when we are dealing with Covid-19, election stress and personal issues, I have yet to see evidence of any of that from those who have stopped by to donate.

Their only expression is a great feeling of knowing they are helping someone or a family in our community. And that's what it's all about.