November 14th, I received sudden and mysterious texts from Beth Kopicki and Lynne Betts stating there was going to be a shipment of produce to the Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Seaford and to let families know through social media, emails, etc..

I woke up on Saturday relishing the fact that I FINALLY has a Saturday where I did not have to dash out of bed and run to my next to be at location, lol. I looked and I remembered, I saw it was 7:50ish and I knew the produce delivery was supposed to be at 8:00 – 8:15ish, so I headed over to the church to grab a few cases of food to give to families. The two lines looked modest, but not out of control at all, and glad to see word was getting around.

As I waited in line, I saw a tractor trailer pull up and also began to pull up alongside the tractor trailer from the front of where it was parked, so unknown to me, unclear to me, was the contents, etc.. I did see tomatoes, peppers, etc., start to come off. When I pulled up alongside the truck, I began to grasp the reality of how much produce we were talking- (See below photos). I was flabbergasted, and of course, my phone died at that moment, so communication between reaching more people was cut off. As I loaded up my vehicle (see images) I saw that a pantry was opening (separate from this event by at this same location) and half of the help were needed over there- so me being the former Friedman’s /Bilo Food (117 years of being in business) employee from Butler,

I said, hey, I can help….whew. I had no idea. The truck driver Joseph had not stopped since he arrive with this shipment (all purchased and sponsored by Trader Joe’s by the way) – and he was already sweating long by now, and we were not even halfway through the tractor trailer.

As we got through pallet by pallet and people taking tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, there still was so MUCH. The problem was at 10:00 AM, there had to be a point where the tractor trailer had to leave and the help with the tractor trailer had to shift over to the pantry, and there was easily a third of the tractor trailer produce still left. I had my truck full, so I headed over to a neighbor to the church who had a large family and was coach of the XC team, then to my Mom’s in Virginia Crest Apartments and ran into some neighbors there, passing out liberally the items I had in my truck, I saw two other cars also helping distribute their loads, the same people who we had been working together to unload, (great minds link alike!) I went back and saw they truly had so much left, they needed help.

Thinking of the cuff – (as I seem to always do with a crazy minute by minute sequence of events) I through, I am running on fumes in my car, I told the truck driver I know where we can go, if you follow me, where we can get the rest to families, I just need to get gas, and it was a deal. I went to Seaford Royal Farms, saw some kind of commotion there with four Seaford police cars, but tried to avoid that and went to the pumps- started filling up. At this point, I started looking around and saw two people parked in the parking lot that were obviously hunters, I asked if they wanted or knew families that could benefit from so much food (my truck was stuffed!) They said yes, ( I am sure they thought I was crazy approaching their truck asking if they wanted so much food or wondered if I had just ransacked a grocery store), lol. They ended up filling a good portion of their truck bed with the produce, as well as me not being afraid to hit up the guy on the other side of my pump, and he took some cases too! So much I emptied out my truck to those three vehicles just filling up my vehicle with gas- so I was on a roll.

I went back to Our Lady of Lourdes and connected with the driver Joseph, by now he had been unloading his truck with the help of some amazing people since 8:00 AM, and we lined up and he was following me to Georgetown. My initial plan was to head to El Mercado in Georgetown- but what worried me as I was headed there were the side streets with a tractor trailer. But then, as we hit Seashore Highway, I remembered the ML Country Store in Bridgeville and while I knew they had that flea market, I also knew I just bet we could fit into the parking lot. Sure enough, we stopped, I ran into a former Woodbridge student who helped me ask if we could pull the tractor trailer into the parking lot to distribute free produce, and sure enough we were off to the races. I then saw another student, Sophia, pull in and I was like, AMEN! YES! I asked her to call anyone she knew about the food, her aunt owned the store, and then cars started coming like crazy. 2 1/2 hours later, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!, we made it to the back of the tractor trailer. All pallets empty, families taking food and sharing with other families, I will be honest, I could not believe it, and we did not even have to go all the way into Georgetown. I had a few small cases and I took them to Woodbridge where I distributed them further to other families, again, amazing timing.

My thoughts on this – FIRST – totally unexpected and amazing how many people you can think of last minute that can benefit from something, other than yourself, so last minute. A Miracle.

Second, how lucky were we to have the volunteers that responded to Our Lady of Lourdes call to distribute food, on such short notice? Amazing.

Third, it was HIGHLY UNBELIEVABLE how generous of his time the truck driver, Joseph, was unloading EVERYTHING. I would say most truck drivers are amazing to begin with, but I can 100% see a truck driver also stating that he was a driver, not an unloader and not jumping in 100% from the beginning, he was AWESOME.

Fourth, seeing the Woodbridge students come to the rescue and start dialing out and contacting families, who then came to had the network to distribute to other families, it was AWESOME. It made me again realize how much of an asset some of the best students we have ever seen exist in our community and ultimately, how they make an impact on our community when given a chance. They showed up, (Sophia and Aida) by chance and last minute, helped unload constantly, and contacted others, they WERE the pipeline today at the 2nd half of distribution.

Fifth, just how luck are we to be put in a situation to help others and then see the impacts of these, and realize how good life can be, amid such chaos happening around us? I am convinced we can make the changes we need to occur on a larger level by doing so on a smaller level.

Sixth, Lynne Betts said it best, she said she was almost in tears when she looked around, and then she saw Beth Kopicki, then she saw Dave/Cindy Blackwell, and Juanita Mireles, then she saw young kids and others in a second helping and it shows what can be done when you just pray, trust God, and reach out to others. HUNDREDS of people are impacted positively.

Seventh, at age 53, I certainly never thought I would be recalled back to my grocery store days of unloading trucks like my hair was on fire and yet, here I was. I was grateful I was still able to do it, but my body was constantly saying, “Dude! – this was over 30 years ago and you expecting me to bounce back to that day? You are going to PAY.” LOL.

As we finished unloading the last pallets and yes, we even had a chance to get the pallets to someone that would be willing to take them- the truck driver insisted on buying me lunch, and I fought hard back against this but he refused to let me buy him lunch, and we went into M L Country Store and I changed his mind from a cheeseburger to a Burrito, and we laughed about the day and just amazed at what happened. (It might have been the best burrito I had in my memory since returning from Mexico). The truck driver, Joseph, mentioned that he was driving here (to Delaware) and felt the spirit of God come on him as he was listening to gospel music, and he knew something was going to happen that was special. Between Lynne and Joseph, I could not have explained it possibly any better. I also realized there is still magic to be found in our community among all faces, places, and spaces. it was a magical day. Thank you Trader Joe’s for starting off a connection of power that was not apparent from the start of the day.

Yes, I have tomorrow off – I might be waking up just a little later than today- just in case. 🙂