Pictured: Terry Johnson and student Stacy Graven proudly hand a check for $5,000 to Geri Gamber and Debbie Hatt on behalf of the Carbon County Food Bank
By Beth Icard
When you browse through your kitchen for cans you can donate to a food drive, you generally go into your pantry and pull out the tomato soup, tuna, peanut butter, and maybe even that stray can of artichoke hearts you once bought for that recipe you never tried. You take your bag to the drop-off the next day, and you never think about it again. But what really happens to your food? How much does it really help those who are hungry?
According to Julie Rosier, Food Bank Coordinator, what we donate really makes a difference, and without community support, the food bank couldn’t stay open. She says that “over 500 families [are] served, amounting to about 1,200 individuals. That number is higher during the holidays.”
Rosier adds that many people don’t realize that “donations help us financially as well. It’s a double-win.” This is because the food bank receives 12 cents per pound from the state for any donated food that had been taxed at purchase. So any time the Boy Scouts, postal carriers, or the local high school holds a food drive, it stretches farther than people realize. The food bank also benefits from what they call “grocery rescue” by picking up donations from Lin’s, Smith’s, and Walmart, including dented cans, outdated pastries, and other products that didn’t sell.
For the past 17 years, USU Eastern has made its own contributions by donating the money raised at the popular Bread ‘N Soup Night event. This year alone, USU Eastern donated $5,000 to the Carbon County Food Bank, bringing the 17-year total to roughly $48,000. “It was gratifying to be able to make such a healthy donation this year,” said USU Eastern’s Terry Johnson, director of the SUN Center, the volunteer organization which spearheads the popular Bread ‘N Soup Nights at the college.
Students, faculty, staff and community members attended this year’s charity event, which combines all the best qualities of service to help those in need. Geri Gamber, the Community Service Program Manager, virtually welled up with tears when she talked about the importance of this relationship: “It makes us feel like we belong in the community, that the community cares about us.” She stressed that the food bank families “don’t understand the intricacies of these programs,” but with Food Bank help, they can “succeed in other areas. They have a little more self-sufficiency.”
Gamber said of the annual donations, “It makes us feel like we belong in the community, that the community cares about us. The support is there.” She also explains that the families who receive food from the food bank “don’t understand the intricacies of these programs – where the food comes from . . . They need all the help they can get. By helping them in this way, it helps them succeed in other areas. They have a little more self-sufficiency.”
So whether you attended Bread ‘N Soup night back in November to just grab a quick bowl of soup, wandered around the neighborhood with other SUN Center volunteers asking for canned goods during Trick or Treat for Food, or just tossed a box of macaroni and cheese into a donation bin, you made an important difference in someone else’s life.