Conducting the Feds Feed Families (FFF) food drive at NNSA’s Nevada Field Office (NFO) during a normal year is hard work. Doing so during a global pandemic is exponentially more challenging. Putting out food collection barrels and hosting special events in the name of collecting food donations works in a normal year, but throw COVID-19 and telework into the mix and what can you do? This is especially difficult when you come off a 2019 campaign that collected nearly 5,600 pounds of food.
Knowing the difficulty he faced, NFO Program Analyst Tristan Dunn became creative. Now in his third year as FFF coordinator, he acted quickly to organize drop-off locations in the north and south ends of the Las Vegas Valley. He even picked up donations from employees’ homes. He reminded employees each week that they could make donations via online grocery deliveries or donate directly to the Las Vegas Rescue Mission’s website, with every dollar equaling a pound of food.
When all was said and done, NFO families had donated more than 2,700 pounds of food. The total was just 100 pounds shy of the donations made in 2018.
“In the past I almost never made time to do this type of volunteer work,” Dunn said. “But when I took the donations to the Las Vegas Rescue Mission and saw the situation firsthand and the impact our donations had – it got me passionate.”
Valerie Weiderman, from the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, was grateful for donations from the NFO.
“We cannot thank you enough for all of the incredible support you give the Las Vegas Rescue Mission and those we serve,” she said. “The Mission is able to continue serving those in need because of partners like you and community members who care about giving back.”