Retired Gretna Couple Gets Behind the Wheel to Help Food-Insecure Families in the Metro
There are innumerable ways to fill the extra free time that often comes with retirement.
You might join a bowling league or a book club. You could try your hand at gardening in your own backyard or travel to an exotic locale to experience a new culture. You might learn a new language or write your memoirs.
Tom and Barb Miller, on the other hand, have chosen to spend some of their retirement time a bit differently. They volunteer to drive a truck.
Every week since mid-March, when metro-area schools closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gretna couple has shown up to drive a truck stocked with food from The Salvation Army Western Divisional Headquarters to the parking lot at Thomas Jefferson High School in Council Bluffs. Through snow and ice, wind, rain and blistering heat, they’ve helped unload and distribute meals to hundreds of food-insecure children and their families.
“If a parent has been laid off or furloughed because of the pandemic, they still have to feed their kids and make sure there is food on the table,” said Barb. “The Mobile BackPack Program helps families bridge the gap when money is tight. It brings joy to our hearts to contribute to this effort in one small way.”
All told, the Mobile BackPack Program – a partnership between The Food Bank for the Heartland, The Salvation Army and several other area agencies – has provided more than 306,000 meals at 18 locations around the metro to families in need during the pandemic.
Driving the truck for the Mobile BackPack Program isn’t the Millers’ first volunteer rodeo. They’ve been volunteering for The Salvation Army’s Winter Night Watch mobile food distribution program for the last ten years. Tom drives the canteen, Barb rides in the “jump seat,” and they help distribute hot meals as well winter coats, hats, gloves, socks and blankets to the homeless and those in need in Omaha during the coldest months of the year.
The Millers will take a much-deserved respite from truck driving once metro schools reopen in August, but they’ll be back behind the wheel again come December when Winter Night Watch resumes. “As long as our service is needed, we’ll be available,” said Barb. “We’re grateful we have the ability to help.”