Sailor-driven Food Drive Helps Hampton Roads Community, Foodbank

By David Todd, Commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic Public Affairs

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- Personnel from Helicopter Sea Combat Wing Atlantic (HELSEACOMBATWINGLANT) held a competitive food drive throughout the month of February called "For The Love of Food." The event generated more than 6,700 pounds (3.3 tons) of canned food, and the winning team was announced, March 16.

The food drive was originally started as a way to generate healthy competition between the squadrons and training schools, and to promote camaraderie amongst the service members, but ultimately it became an effective campaign to combat hunger in Hampton Roads.

Approximately 2,900 personnel participated from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron Seven "Dusty Dogs" (HSC-7), Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Fourteen (HM-14) "Vanguard," HM-15 "Blackhawks," HSC-2 "Fleet Angels," HSC-84 "Red Wolves," HSC-28 "Dragon Whales," HSC-9 "Tridents," HSC-26 "Chargers," Helicopter Sea Combat Weapons School Atlantic, and Airborne Mine Countermeasures Weapon Systems Training School. All of the proceeds went to support the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia.

"About three years ago when I was at a Marine Corps Command I came up with the idea for a competitive food drive within sections," said Lt. Jeffrey Ross, chaplain, Helicopter Sea Combat Wing Atlantic. "Now that I'm in the 'Wing,' I thought it would be interesting to do a competitive food drive between the squadrons ... just to see what the results were."

With the assistance of Religious Program Specialist 2nd Class Angelique Tulp, Helicopter Sea Combat Wing Atlantic, the two calculated the results weekly and reported them to squadrons to help promote participation. As an added bonus, Ross spoke with the skippers to allow a 24-hour special liberty to the winners.

"RP2 [Tulp] put together some flyers and promotional posters, we contacted all the squadrons and got a point of contact," said Ross. "Then we literally turned it over to the squadrons and let them do whatever they wanted to do individually. So we had different squadrons doing different things, competition-wise within each squadron."

Money was also collected to purchase food and additional items needed by the Foodbank including: diapers, baby formula, jars of baby food, bottled water, soup and potted meat.

The results far surpassed Ross' original goal and the Sailors proved to be self-driven for the greater good of the community.

"I was hoping [for] 2,000 cans," said Ross. "I figured it would be neat to tell the commodore that I raised a ton of food; 2,000 pounds."

"It was a slow process at the beginning," said Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class Elizabeth Lor. "We all started trickling in a couple cans at a time per person. When it came down to the last two days, everybody pitched in and we went out and got as [many] cans as we could."

When the competition came to a close, HSC-7 was crowned the winners. They raised 2,650 cans, which worked out to be approximately 11.4 cans per person. To keep the competition fair for squadrons who had fewer participants, the number of participants in each group was divided by the total number of cans collected, thus giving them the amount of cans collected per person.

"It was a great way for them to demonstrate a little bit of competitive spirit, and at the same time, do it for a good cause," said Cmdr. Brian S. Knowles, executive officer, HSC-7. "We are relatively new to Norfolk and I think it's really a great way for us to get involved with the Norfolk community in the Hampton Roads area."

Ross said he hopes this food drive will inspire other commands to get involved.

"The reality is, we think of the holiday season as a good time to give, but February comes around, you're in the middle of winter, and most of the Foodbanks run dry," he said. "And that's actually when the need starts."