The ever-changing world of COVID-19 left many people without jobs, a stable income or consistent access to food.
As part of the government relief program for COVID, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farmers to Families program provided free perishable food and milk to the Winona community on Oct. 31.
Teamsters Local 120, the Winona Main Street Program, business owner Jovy Rockey and the work of many volunteers came together to make this event possible.
Paul Slattery, organizer and political director of Teamsters Local 120, said a semi-truck filled with food boxes and milk was parked behind the Winona 7 Theater for community members to drive through and collect food.
“This equates to 1,188 boxes of food and 1,188 gallons of milk,” Slattery said.
Solvay Teamster 120 member, Cuyler Elmore, explained the contents of each box.
“They tried to target each of the food categories,” Elmore said. “It is 30 pounds of fresh food, protein, dairy, fiber, produce, [it’s] everything you need.”
Jovy Rockey, with her mayoral campaign team, volunteered at the event and helped make it happen.
Teamsters Local 120 endorsed Rockey as a candidate. They initially just reached out to park in front of her store, but once she heard about the food giveaway, she said she was hooked.
“I thought it was awesome because with everything that’s happening right now, there’s a lot of people who are in really vulnerable states,” Rockey said. “Anything that I can do to support something like this, where we can just give food to the community and it’s no questions, it was open to anyone, so that really resonated with me.”
As a part of the Winona community, Teamsters Local 120 and Rockey encouraged college students to come as volunteers and to get food and milk for themselves.
“It’s a great way for students to get more involved in the community, especially if they’re new to Winona and want to see what Winona’s all about,” Elmore said.
Aside from volunteering, Slattery said he recognizes college students need food too.
“Most college students are working part time jobs while they still have a lot of bills on top of that,” Slattery said.
Rockey acknowledged the separation sometimes associated with college students and the rest of the town of Winona when it comes to Winona community events.
“Even though we talk about these things for the community, [students] are a part of the community as well. It is not a mutually exclusive thing,” Rockey said. “I want students to know that they are a part of this community. They are not some separate fringe group.”
The USDA has plans to continue giving food to communities through the end of December, so Teamsters Local 120 hopes to do another food pickup event around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Aside from this event, there have been other free food drops put on by local Winona organizations for the community.
“There’s just a lot of folks who have lost their jobs, who are going to part time or have had to quit their jobs, because they are at home with their kids,” Rockey said. “There’s just so many different scenarios where folks are kind of hurting right now. So, if there’s any way that we can support that, and push initiatives like that, I think it’s really fantastic.”