Your support delivers healthy food to neighbors in need
Marion Polk Food Share delivery driver Zimmer chats with assistant pantry manager Judi during a delivery to Keizer Community Food Bank.
Because of you, nutritious food is delivered into our community with care and compassion every day.
Your generous support allows Marion Polk Food Share to distribute food to more than 100 partners throughout Marion and Polk counties. Last year, the Food Share distributed enough food to provide more than 8.2 million meals for our neighbors in need.
Each day, a team of Food Share drivers picks up donations from grocery stores and other retail partners throughout our community. These generous donations include produce, dairy, eggs, bread and meat – fresh items which are highly nutritious but often unaffordable for neighbors with limited grocery budgets. After volunteers sort the donations at the Food Share’s warehouse, Food Share drivers quickly distribute the food to partner food pantries to ensure they reach pantry guests at peak freshness.
Zimmer, who has served as a Food Share delivery driver for four years, strives to go above and beyond while delivering food to our partner agencies. Food pantry volunteers and community partners praise his positive energy and willingness to jump in and help, especially during times of heightened community need.
Food Share delivery driver Zimmer is among a team of drivers that helps supply partners throughout the area with fresh, nutritious food.
“I always arrive early for deliveries because I know the volunteers are waiting for me,” Zimmer says. “I really try to make it there on time and help the volunteers because they really make a lot of stuff go around.”
Zimmer and his fellow drivers are essential to the Food Share’s mission of bringing people together to end hunger and its root causes. Drivers get to know the volunteers at food pantries well and are quick to offer an extra helping hand when needed. Whether moving shelving, moving pallets of food or organizing the area to improve efficiency, drivers work to provide support to volunteers and ensure the best possible experience for pantry visitors.
“It’s amazing to me,” says Zimmer. “The donations go to folks with nothing. When you see the faces of people that don’t have a home or electricity, and you give them food, it’s amazing to see how grateful they are, and I think about how I take that for granted. People are so grateful; it’s wonderful to see.”
The Food Share would like to thank American Ballet Academy, Bank of America, Bonaventure Senior Living, Brenden Family Foundation, City of Salem, Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette, IDM Companies, LLC, Madrona Hill Foundation, OCF Joseph E. Weston Public Foundation, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Pioneer Trust Bank Foundation, The H Group, Inc., Weyerhaeuser, Willamette Art Center, Withers Lumber and community members like you for making this work possible. Your support helps steward connections in our community and provides healthy food for families in need.
