Glen Jeffrey, a paint engineer with Steel Dynamics Inc., looked at a palette with canned good stacked about 5 feet high in the company’s plant.
“That right there is about 2,500 pounds of food,” Jeffrey said.
That palette was only part of everything collected by the company’s local factory. “I was really surprised.”
This year, Steel Dynamics collected about 3,485 pounds of canned goods to donate to the Center for Lay Ministries. After a quick calculation to subtract the weight of the cans, Jeffrey estimated a total of about 3,100 pounds of food were going to families in Clark County.
Diana Maynard, the branch accountant, said Steel Dynamics hadn’t held a can drive in about five years, but had participated with other charities in the meantime, such as adopting a family through The Salvation Army for the holidays.
“We try to do something every year, and given we haven’t done a food drive for several years, we needed to do that,” Maynard said.
She said the employees began collecting cans about three weeks ago in a competition between five crews of the company.
“People either opened their cabinets and starting filling bags, or went to their favorite grocer and bought what they thought was appropriate,” Maynard said.
The office crew at the company came up with the most cans by getting in touch with the Kroger on 10th Street in Jeffersonville. The crew pooled money together, received additional money from sponsors and was able to buy the goods at cost.
When Roland Kramer and Matthew Hudson from Center for Lay Ministries arrived, they were told the weight of all the canned goods would be too much for their van alone.
It took a company pickup, the pickup of an employee and the center’s van to haul the cans away.
Hudson, executive director of Center for Lay Ministries, said the center hands out about 29,000 pounds of food a month and 200 new families visit for food each month.
Hudson said last year, the center gave away about 300,000 pounds of food, but that supply was still stretched thin.
“Every bit of food we get goes a long way, and the families really appreciate it in these tough economic times,” Hudson said. “It goes very scarce, and we have to make it last as much as we can.”
Jeffrey said he’s glad his company can help people in Clark County.
“For me, it’s just doing something special for the community for the holiday season,” Jeffrey said. “I’m thankful, and the holiday season always brings the urge to give back to the community.”
Jerod Clapp is a freelance journalist who lives in Southern Indiana.
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