Food Drive Uses Fleet Of Pickups To Haul Away Hunger
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It may look like a dealer's lot, packed full of Toyota Tundra pickups.
However, it's actually a fleet of incredibly important delivery vehicles.
The trucks were loaded with thousands of pounds of food, all going to Philabundance, which then helps feed thousands of families and individuals in need of food throughout Philadelphia.
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"We'll be able to use this over the course of the year. We are feeding people throughout the course of the year," said Glenn Bergman, the executive director of Philabundance. "Ninety-thousand people every week touch our food in some way."
He adds that this year's load is the largest since the Haul Away Hunger food drive started exactly one decade ago. "Three-hundred, thirty thousand pounds of food here today," Bergman said.
To give you an idea of just how much food that is -- 330,000 pounds of food donated is the equivalent in weight of more than 60 Toyota Tundras.
"We wanted to do something where we could not only generate food and donations for Philabundance, but generate an awareness of what Philabundance does in the community," said Paul Muller who owns three Toyota Dealerships and helps spearhead this mission.
It is a mission he says would not be possible without the help of dozens of volunteers like the Local Union 542 operating engineers, who manned the forklifts and loaded the food into the tractor trailers. That is the first step before it gets onto the tabled of those who need it most.
"This is a 52-week a year problem," Muller said. "Help them out. The feeling, it's going to keep you warm all year long."
