Panera Food Distribution- Mission Accomplished 🫡
Thank you to all Panera Stores in Tallahassee 👏
I've only been off active duty for a few years, but last night's food distribution made it seem like I was back in uniform. Dennis Baker from the Florida Veterans Foundation sent out a request from Panera that their discontinued food items be sent to local Veterans. The message was sent to a few members of the coalition. Since I knew one of the members had their hands full with an upcoming annual event, I decided to just take it upon myself to see this through. Bear in mind, as you all know, I'm new to the Tallahassee Veterans community. I haven't fully got my bearings regarding all of the communities of veterans that need assistance and/or the logistical resources available.
Nonetheless, I did have experience working in such scenarios. Within a few hours of being notified, word started to spread through the coalition about the food. The first challenge I had to overcome was transport. How were we going to get this food to the Veterans? I would need a truck and trailer. Susie Caplowe messaged me and stated Ginni Stalker is a Marine and could help me since she is already involved in food distribution in Tallahassee. I was excited because now we could move the food. The next hurdle was where we were going to put the food. The American Legion Hall was booked the evening of the distribution. Since most of the food was frozen or needed refrigeration, we would need a drive-through location. I called Joe West at the Vietnam Veterans of America to see if we could use their parking lot to distribute the food. Joe checked their schedule and had no bookings. We could use their parking lot.
Transport ✔️
Drop Zone (Literally a helicopter right beside the parking lot) LOL ✔️
The Mission was a GO! ✅
Our first pickup was made by Stevi Stalker, Ginni’s sister, at FSU Panera at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday. The 2nd and 3rd pickups were at the Thomasville Road and Apalachee Parkway stores around 2000HRS(8PM) last night. I asked Ginni if we would have enough room for both stores in the back of her truck; she said she brought her trailer. I said, "You're a logistician!" (not actually realizing that was her actual Military Occupational Specialty (MOS)).
SPOILER ALERT- I wanted to see if I could find out more information on Ginni Stalker since she is an incredibly talented Logistician. Let’s just say she knows how to move some cargo.
When Ginni showed up with the truck and trailer, I thought it was just going to be the two of us. Thankfully, Jon Pantoja from Veteran Events Tallahassee and Daniel Paasch from Senator Marco Rubio’s Office were also there to assist with the distribution.
Ginni was also able to provide some additional food from an earlier unallocated distribution. We fed a lot of Veterans thanks to you all sharing the email and calling people!