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‘Turkey drivers' hope to fill bus with food
With need greater than ever, Schwartz aims to offer families a Christmas meal
Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by JESSE YEATMAN
Mike Schwartz stands on his bus, which he and his "turkey drivers" hope to fill with food this month to provide dinners for low-income families and senior citizens.
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The need for a good meal this holiday season is growing as ripples of the economic recession affect more and more families.
For more than 25 years, Mike Schwartz has organized a fund to buy turkey dinner baskets for low-income families in St. Mary's County.
He said this year is shaping up to be one of the toughest yet.
"The recession is playing a role," Schwartz said. The list of requests for meals is already approaching 1,000, and "this early, that is a scary number," he said.
Schwartz started collecting donations to buy Christmas meals for families in 1983 as a way to give back to the community after he had received help following a house fire.
"We did 11" meals that first year, he said. "It's grown exponentially."
Years ago as the need for meals increased and word spread of Schwartz's endeavor, members of the Zion United Methodist Church joined forces with him, including Idolia Shubrooks of Park Hall, who has been an active volunteer with the project for more than 20 years.
The number of volunteers, whom Shubrooks calls "Mike's supporters," has grown over the years, "because they see the need," she said.
Last year Schwartz and his "turkey drivers," as he affectionately refers to them, set two records. They gave out 1,136 turkey basket dinners, an all-time high. However, more than 150 requests — the most ever — went unfilled because of lack of resources.
He typically gets a list of families from the Christmas Caring Program, which is made up of names provided by the St. Mary's County Department of Social Services, primarily to give gifts to low-income families.
Schwartz is often their last hope to have a good Christmas meal, he said.
"If they don't get a turkey from me, they don't get anything at all," Schwartz said.
The recession has caused many families and elderly to be in a position they never would have imagined one or two years ago, a position that might mean forgoing a traditional turkey meal on Christmas, Shubrooks said.
"You can't judge the needs of people by the cars they drive or the houses they live in, because people are losing their jobs," she said.
A group of more than a dozen regular supporters, many from Zion United Methodist Church in Lexington Park, have met several times this fall with Schwartz to hash out a plan for the season.
Members of the church put out an all-call to the community to "help fill Mike's bus." Schwartz's dark-green bus will be parked at several locations next week and people are asked to donate canned green beans and corn or give a monetary contribution.
A case of green beans or corn costs about $10 and can go toward 24 meals.
This is the first year of the bus campaign. The group hopes it will offset some of the extra need predicted this year because of the recession.
"The more we can stuff in the bus, the less I have to buy," Schwartz said.
Each year, he uses money collected through Mike's Food Fund to buy a turkey and 10 pounds of potatoes for each turkey dinner basket.
Not only are the logistics of collecting enough food and money and storing the food until delivery going to be difficult with that many people, but delivery of the meals will be tough, too, he said.
Meals will be distributed from Dec. 15 to 18 each evening from Zion United Methodist Church, which is located on Route 235, between gates 2 and 3 of Patuxent River Naval Air Station.
Volunteers are needed to help package dinners and deliver approximately 50 routes.
Schwartz is quick to take credit only for "making noise" over the issue, but is also just as quick to acknowledge the many volunteers, especially Shubrooks. Over the years both have spent time as late in the season as Christmas Eve filling and distributing meal requests.
If you want to help
To help "Fill Mike's Bus," visit one of these locations to donate canned green beans and corn or give a monetary contribution. All food and money collected will go toward buying Christmas turkey dinner baskets for low-income families and senior citizens. The bus will be at the Re/Max parking lot across from Giant in California Dec. 7 to 11 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; at Mike's Bikes on Great Mills Road in Lexington Park on Dec. 12 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and in the Walmart parking lot on Dec. 13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information or to donate to Mike's Food Fund, call 301-863-7887.
