MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — The first day of Stuff the Truck in Milledgeville started our campaign off with a bang.
By the time the truck arrived at 10 A.M. a whole bin was already filled with donations ready to be loaded into the truck.
Every single person donating has their own reason for giving back.
For some, it's personal.
“Everybody needs somebody and my Christmas present to myself is to give to the community,” Joyce Pennington said.
She says food insecurity comes in all shapes and sizes, and all walks of life too. So, she's spending her spare money on others.
“You might be that one person who lifts somebody up,” Pennington said.
For others, the reason could be the want to make more people included in the Thanksgiving festivities.
"That's not a good feeling for anybody to not have Thanksgiving dinner,” Deidre Howard said.
She says she usually cooks up a Thanksgiving feast.
“I cook turkey, dressing, dumplings, collards, mac and cheese– I mean, I do it all,” Howard said.
She donated food so someone else could have their own feast.
“I donated some canned goods, corn, vegetables, rice, and pasta. Things I thought would be simple to cook,” she said. “It's just been a hard time these past few years, so I think it's just important to give this time of year.”
It could also be to teach an important lesson.
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“We’re here today to stuff the truck,” Baldwin School District’s Family Engagement Coordinator Shonya Mapp said. “We went around to each school and asked all of our students to go home and ask their parents if it was okay to bring food from the house, or go shopping. Whatever they could do to make this a success."
Mapp says students collected 4,000 food items. Oak Hill Middle school, Midway Hills Academy and Georgia College Early College students came to help unload the busload of food.
“When you give back, a lot of great things happen,” Mapp said. “It helps a lot of people in the community who are less fortunate, so we try to teach our students about sharing."
It’s because food insecurity affects more people than we think.
“Money wasn't tight but we didn't have much and we don't want other people experiencing that,” Genesis Guerra Oak Hill 6th grader said.
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She and her cousin Alexia Ramirez say food was once stretched thin in their shared 10-person household.
“I know from experience that it's very hard and it's like, you really don’t want to feel it, and, like, you'd feel bad. I feel like it's good to help people in need. Not everyone has food on the table and clothes on their back,” Guerra said.
It could be for no reason at all.
“There are a lot of people who have some, but not enough,” Felix Reeves said. “So, it would help out a lot so much to continue to give."
We have two other opportunities to Stuff the Truck if you didn't make it out to Milledgeville.
On Wednesday, we will be at Walmart in Dublin, and on Thursday, we will be at the Zebulon Road Walmart in Macon as well as the Watson Boulevard Walmart in Warner Robins.
The goal is to fill up six trucks full of food by Thursday afternoon.
We'd love your help in reaching our goal this year. You can click this story down below to find out how to get involved