by Melissa Luken
Ever wonder what three trips around the earth might feel like? Just ask our dedicated drivers at Loaves & Fishes Community Services! In 2024 alone, our volunteer and staff drivers logged nearly 68,000 miles, ensuring both food rescue from grocery partners and client food distributions were carried out seamlessly.
To put this distance into perspective: 68,000 miles is almost three times around the entire Earth, which has a circumference of about 24,901 miles! It’s also equivalent to driving coast to coast across the U.S., from New York City to Los Angeles, more than 24 times (a trip that’s about 2,800 miles).
With their dedication and hard work, we increased our weekly food rescue stops by 15%, growing from 75 in June 2024 to 86 by December 2024, with three additional stops each Sunday. Our drivers also played a key role in boosting our food recovery and donations weight by nearly half a million pounds, rising from 3,272,000 pounds in 2023 to 3,731,000 pounds in 2024. This is crucial for us as we continue to see an increase in need from serving 339,000 people in 2023 to 443,257 people in 2024.
These remarkable achievements are directly attributed to the commitment of our dedicated drivers. They play a vital role as both the first and final steps in our Food Operations, ensuring that healthy food is rescued and delivered to those in need, allowing us to carry out our mission of ending hunger and transforming lives. We are immensely grateful for all that they do for us!
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer driver at Loaves & Fishes Community Services, we could certainly use your help and would love to hear from you! We can help you obtain your non-CDL C-class license for driving our box truck equipment. Join us and make a meaningful impact on the lives of others.
Melissa Luken is the Executive Vice President for Food Operations at Loaves & Fishes Community Services. Contact her at mluken@loaves-fishes.org.
