From staff reports
TRUSSVILLE — The Trussville Area Chamber of Commerce has announced a community-wide food drive to be held in February.
The sixth annual “Love Your Neighbor” food drive will be held in conjunction with Valentine’s Day. Collection points will be manned at various locations and times during the week of Monday, Feb. 16. The drive benefits the Trussville Ecumenical Assistive Ministry, which assists those in the immediate Trussville area who are in need of food, clothing and other necessities during difficult financial times.
A “drive through” kickoff will be held Saturday, Feb. 14 from 9 a.m. to noon in the parking lot at First United Methodist Church of Trussville.
“We try to make it easy for people in our ‘drive-through world’ to donate, so on that Saturday, people can actually drive into the parking lot, drop off their non-perishable items to volunteers, and then drive on out,” said Trussville Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Diane Poole. “They don’t even have to get out of their cars.”
Celebrity volunteers plan to be on-hand at the kickoff to greet contributors.
“For the past five years, we’ve used the Valentine’s Day theme of love to remind people to ‘love their neighbor’ and to help those in need,” said T.E.A.M. volunteer Louise Jensen. “Many people think of helping others during the holidays but they sometimes forget that some people need help all during the year. We hope this food drive will bring an awareness to donate these items all year long.”
This year’s goal is to collect enough non-perishable items to help T.E.A.M. provide food until the fall.
Specific items that are particularly needed include personal hygiene items, cooking oil, flour, corn meal, sugar, canned meat and fish, dried beans, cereal, breakfast food, peanut butter, jelly, saltines, and macaroni and cheese. T.E.A.M.’s other immediate needs include not only volunteers but also a larger building in which to house and distribute donated items.
Area churches that participate as T.E.A.M. members include Clear Branch United Methodist Church, Deerfoot Baptist Church, First Baptist Church Trussville, First United Methodist Church of Trussville, Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Faith Lutheran Church, Cahaba Springs Presbyterian Church and Holy Infant of Prague Catholic Church. In addition, the McSweeney Foundation is also a member of T.E.A.M.
Drop-off locations include participating T.E.A.M. churches, the Trussville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Trussville fire station on Main Street, McSweeney Foundation/MCM Custom Vehicles and T.E.A.M. All locations will accept donations Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. next week. Most of the participating churches will also conduct drives Sunday, Feb. 15 and Feb. 22. You may also leave donations at the T.E.A.M. location any time.
T.E.A.M. is located at 88 Cedar Lane in Trussville. Its hours of operation are Monday, Wednesday and Friday from noon to 2 p.m., and Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. You may leave a message for T.E.A.M. at 205-661-5039. Member churches share the expenses of T.E.A.M., supplemented with donations from individuals and community and civic organizations.