FORT LEE, Va. -- Fort Lee Commissary’s new leadership teamed up with garrison leadership Nov. 18 to arrange a food donation for 78 military families in need.
Margaret Camacho, store director, and three others at the commissary were the driving force behind the “Thanksgiving in a Bag” project. They worked with their industry partners for the food donations, and those that stepped forward in response to the commissary call for support included Acosta, Esco, Advantage, Kraft, S&K and Nabisco, said Camacho.
“We wanted to introduce our new leadership to Fort Lee, so we asked the command how the commissary could help Soldiers in need for this Thanksgiving,” she said.
A special event happened as an extra to that donation as two assembly lines of roughly 30 garrison and CASCOM leaders chatted and laughed while they packed cans of vegetables, boxes of stuffing and instant potatoes, tins of pie crusts and other goods in colorful Earth Day shopping bags at the store. The bags and a ham were given to military families the next day to help with their holiday celebration.
“It was really fun (to pack the bags,)” Watson said. “The volunteers were there, giving up their time to take care of Soldiers. So, you could just see the camaraderie that everybody has. We were doing this for a good cause, and you could just feel that happiness and the positive vibes behind the effort.
“I really want to thank the commissary for putting this together,” Watson further noted. “We initially asked for 50 bags, but got 78 families, and they took it in stride and came up with what we needed.”
Those families were chosen from a consolidated list that came from unit leadership and the chaplains. In addition to supporting this project, the Religious Support Office staff was amid coordination of their own “Helping Hands” program, according to Chap. (Maj.) Bruce Wagner.
“We are buying $5,000 worth of commissary gift cards to donate to military families who are in need this year,” he elaborated. “After we purchase the cards, we’ll give them to brigade chaplains to hand out.”
Helping Hands is made possible by the tithes from religious services here and unsolicited donations from supportive community members. The gift cards will be for $50 and will be spread throughout the units at Fort Lee to help those military families who may be struggling a bit this season for any number of reasons.
“We don’t want any military families to miss out on a Thanksgiving dinner, so we’re happy to be able to do this donation for those in need this year.”
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