Exec. Dir. Bronwyn Mayden Leads UMB / Promise Heights Food Box Deliveries
Delivering fresh produce, dairy, and shelf-stable foods to McCulloh Homes, Pedestal Gardens, & the Union Baptist Head Start
The October 26 team at the McCulloh Homes, with Bronwyn Mayden keeping a close eye as UMB’s grocery boxes are shared with the Promise Heights community.
When our Executive Director, Bronwyn Mayden arrived at Union Baptist-Harvey Johnson Head Start shortly after 8am on Monday, October 26, she cheerfully welcomed newcomers, calling out, “good morning, how are you?!” After warmly greeting the onsite team that included Union Baptist Head Start’s Family Service Coordinator, Sherise Yow and Crystal Watford, their Family Service Coordinator Supervisor, Bronwyn finished tapping a text into her phone to confirm with another partner site that our UMB food boxes would be arriving shortly.
Soon afterwards, a huge delivery truck running on a tight schedule and an ambitious task list pulled up in front of the building’s alcove. The driver began ferrying 200 heavy boxes to the covered entryway to avoid a deluge that might start falling again.
Clearly time was of the essence. Families were due a 9:30 am to pick up these essential grocery boxes, and they knew quantities were limited, so it was best to arrive early. Some families pulled vans or cars up to the curbside, while others arrived on foot, pulling sturdy handcarts.
Meanwhile, this truck also held several pallets filled with produce and shelf-stable food boxes for McCulloh Homes and Pedestal Gardens residents. The Maryland Food Bank shipment needed to be broken down and ready to carry to UMB’s smaller truck that was scheduled to arrive at any moment.
Food Boxes for the community
On October 26, Bronwyn Mayden helps manage two UMB food deliveries
Clearly Charles Burrell and Rodney Robertson know how to quickly offload this delivery truck. As people began to arrive for their food boxes, the team was running math to ensure the correct number of boxes made it to each destination.
Mr. Burrell explained, “There are sixty-six boxes on each pallet.”
Head Start’s manager checked the roster and pointed to the alcove, “That’s thirty-four, right?”
“No, that’s only twenty right there. There’s five layers on each pallet—this one makes thirty.”
Someone joked from nearby, “This is when you’re feeling thankful for your elementary school math teachers, right?”
Burrell grinned and said, “Yup, you’ve got that right” and instantly returned to count the remaining delivery.
They cut open the tethered boxes and arranged the difference in the box truck, setting aside the exact number of boxes for the next two sites, and finished arranging UBHS’s delivery to make the boxes easier to grab.
That first food delivery task wrapped up, Mayden explained the remaining agenda, “We’re going to go over the Manse Court at the McCulloh Homes to make sure they’re all set up. Then we’re going to go to Gilmor Homes to make sure they’re ready to receive their food. We’ve done this for the past two weeks—last week and this week.” And with that, she hurried to McCulloh on foot to make sure that their team was ready.
Fortunately, Samirah Abdul-Fattah (Program Coordinator for our Community-Based Crime Reduction grant) and Miss Rochelle Barksdale (who coordinated this day’s distribution for the McCulloh Homes) were fully set up, with tables, chairs, clipboards ready, and they were completely ready to roll on McCulloh’s Manse Court.
The transfer and setup went well, and once that was done, Mayden headed off to the final food drop off at Gilmor Homes. It was 9:26am with a long list of Promise Heights tasks to accomplish before her day was over.
Soon afterwards UMB’s truck arrived with its team to unload the goods. Mark Drymala, UMB’s Senior Manager in Environmental Services and the man who’s responsible for all of UMB’s moving, recycling, and grounds business introduced himself before checking in with Miss Barksdale, asking, “we’re here dropping off food for the community today. We’ve got four very large pallet fulls of milk and product/food—would it be best to unload right here?”
The transfer and setup went well, and once that was done, Mayden headed off to the final food drop off. It was 9:26am and a long list of tasks to accomplish for Promise Heights before her day was over.
Learn more about other initiatives we’ve led in 2020 to fight food insecurity in Upton/Druid Heights.