A VFW Post and its Auxiliary in Kansas City recently ramped up their monthly food drive efforts in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Taking the proper precautions as advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Post 5606, partnering with Humana in Kansas City, Mo., turned it’s parking lot into a drive-thru that assisted more than 172 families in April.
“We had volunteers with a clipboard signing folks in, inquiring as to how many families were represented per vehicle,” said Cathy Butterworth, Post 5606 commander. “They then directed traffic into the pick-up lane.”
With help from Harvesters community food network, which donated between five and eight food pallets, members of Post 5606 and its Auxiliary then loaded each vehicle with a neon-green Humana bag filled with food measured by family size.
“Every month we help put food on the table for an average of 150 families,” Butterworth said. “Due to the unemployment effect of the COVID-19 crisis, we noticed a slight uptick of 172 families needing assistance this month.”
Post 5606 plans on continuing their monthly food drives held on the first Friday of each month despite an unforeseeable end to Missouri Gov. Michael L. Parson’s “stay-at-home” mandate, which could extend past its scheduled end on April 24.
By Ismael Rodriguez Jr./VFW magazine