BROOKVILLE — The Jefferson County Veterans Affairs Director spoke to the success of the first Military Share Distribution during the county commissioners meeting held Tuesday morning.
The Military Share, a Produce Express Program of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania, is designed to provide fresh, nutritious foods for military families. Members of Second Harvest Food Bank, members of the Jefferson County Shelter Task Force, including Tonya Przybrowski of the Jefferson County Housing Authority, and Jefferson County Veterans Affairs Director David Reitz teamed up to bring the program to the county.
Reitz said the day was the most successful of any Second Harvest has ever seen with its Military Share program. The program served 120 veterans and veteran’s households in the county last Thursday.
“I was told that day that there has never been a turnout that large as ours was for the first day for a Military Share Program that any of them are aware of, so that’s great,” Reitz said.
The county was asked to supply a minimum of 12 volunteers for the day, and there were 30 who showed up. Those volunteers came from; Second Harvest Food Bank, the Sykesville Legion, Reynoldsville Legion, Brookville Legion, Punxsutawney VFW, Jefferson County Housing Authority, Veterans Leadership Program, the three county commissioners, the Jefferson County Fair Board, and Reitz himself.
“I would like to thank all the volunteers for stepping in, because it really was a great day that was made to run smooth through the willingness of our great volunteers,” Reitz said.
He specifically thanked Gerry Weiss and Cindy Plymyer of Second Harvest, Rebecca Leidy of the Military Leadership Program, and Tonya Prysbowski with the housing authority, the commissioners for coming to help, and the fair aboard for making the fair grounds available for the day.
“There were several people who were expressing their gratitude for that program, and you could tell it was making an impact on them, and they were awfully grateful. And you went through a list of people to thank a moment ago, so we thank you for orchestrating this. It had a very positive impact on people, and we appreciate your efforts,” Commissioner Scott North said.
In the boxes distributed there was one loaf of bread, one dozen eggs, one half gallon of milk, one pineapple, three pounds of sweet potatoes, two pounds of carrots, 64 ounces of pistachios, two pounds of trail mix, two pounds of dates, one pound of spaghetti, one pack of cookies, two packs of cookie mix, chili, two pounds of raisins, frozen waffles, two pounds of asparagus, two cans of chicken, one pound of bacon, one pound of ground turkey, one can of spinach, and four other bags of frozen food.
“Surely I have forgotten something. That said, there was well over $100 worth of food in each share. This was a huge help for our veterans and their families,” Reitz said.
He said the plan is to have this distribution once every two months, on the first Thursday of the month. The next distribution is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 1 at 3 p.m. at the fairgrounds once again.
Reitz said the fairgrounds were a perfect place to hold the distribution because it is centrally located to all the communities of the county, and has easy access to cycle people through the grounds and back out to the main road.
“We lined up all the cars in the handicap parking area, and then had them pull around to distribute.
Reitz worked with Second Harvest and is planning to have 140 boxes for the next distribution day. He suggested people start lining up at the fairgrounds around 2 to 2:30 p.m. so they can get people in and out quickly.
Those interested in volunteering for the next distribution can contact Reitz or Prysbowski through their county offices.
“Really the group of people there that was donating their time to do that, it was a jovial time, everybody had a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, it was a great day,” Commissioner Herb Bullers said.
