Donated food goes to Victoria food bank

    A recent food drive by the Edna mail carriers turned into a tug-of-war when a representative of the Food Bank of the Golden Crescent showed up to pick up the donated food.
    Post office employees planned to donate the canned goods to the Helping Hands of Jackson County, a local food bank. When Robin Cadle, director of the Food Bank of the Golden Crescent showed up to get the food, postal employees told her she could not take it, that it was to go to Helping Hands.
    “We were promised that food over a month ago,” said Marcella Ramsbacher, executive director of Helping Hands.
    Local mail carriers collected donated food along their route on May 9. The Annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, touted by the National Association of Letter Carriers as the nation’s largest single-day food drive, advertised that the carriers would bring the food to local food banks, pantries or shelters, including many affiliated with Feeding America.
    The Food Bank of the Golden Crescent is a member of the national association of Feeding America and Helping Hands is not. Cadle said in order for Helping Hands to be a part of the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive they must be a part of a food bank that is a member of Feeding America.
    Cadle said food collected during the drive all stays in the local community and is not shipped off to some regional distribution center hundreds of miles away although the food
     The U.S. Post Office in Edna has been a part of the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive for more than 15 years. The Food Bank has created the Bread of Life Food Pantry at Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Edna to be its local distribution center. Cadle said it is open to all of the residents in Jackson County. The food that was collected by mail carriers for the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive will be delivered there.
    Cadle said food banks that receive food that was donated to the Food Bank of the Golden Crescent from Walmart or HEB are charged 19 cents per pound. She said the 19 cents is a shared maintenance expense. Instead, Shiloh’s Bread of Life Food Pantry will pay a $25 delivery fee to receive the food from the postal worker food drive.
    “We have to inspect the food to make sure it is clean, box it up and put it on trucks to be shipped off,” Cadle said.  
    Some people are not happy with the way the food bank handled the situation.
    Edna’s Jan Taylor said she heard about the food bank taking the food at the post office from a friend on Facebook.
    “I am always defensive when it comes to our community, especially when it comes to issues that involve our local folks who need a helping hand,” Taylor said. “We have hungry mouths to feed in our community and I know Helping Hands does their absolute best to serve those who may not be able to afford what the rest of us enjoy.
    “I just don’t understand why a larger food bank would even consider playing tug-of-war over the food that was donated at the Edna Post Office,” Taylor added. “While I understand that the Golden Crescent Food Bank serves areas other than Victoria and that the amount of people that they serve is larger, the food that was donated during the recent post office food drive should stay in the county to stock our local food bank.”
    The Food Bank of the Golden Crescent picked up the donated food at the Edna Post Office on May 14 accompanied by a local television news reporter. Post office employees could not comment.