A helping hand cleaner

Brenda Driggers, an administrative specialist at Henderson, is expecting a semi truck load full of bottled hand cleaner and she is planning to give it all away for free.

The shipment of 68 thousand bottles (28 pallets) will be delivered to Cattlemen’s Livestock in Glenwood soon, although the exact date and time are not yet known. She hopes to give away the hand cleaner to schools, clinics, businesses, churches and anyone in need.

Giving away truckloads of goods is nothing new to her as she has partnered with organizations such as Celebrating Teachers, Mercy Chefs, the Farmers to Family Food Box Program and she is also currently taking donations for a back-to-school backpack program. For $10, she can give a backpack full of supplies to a student heading back to school.

“The food program was such a blessing,” Driggers said. “Can you imagine 1152 boxes of food and milk every week?”

Through the Farmers to Family Program, she was able to give away that much food weekly to local people at the Cattlemen’s Livestock.

“We gave this away every Wednesday, for several months,” Driggers said. “The program ended and I’m hoping another one will replace it. The same source out of Tulsa asked me if I wanted to receive the semi load of soap to give away and I said ‘yes, of course!’”

The program was created under the Trump Administration and was funded as part of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). It was ended April 30 by the newly appointed head of the USDA, Tom Vilsack.

It paid the producers and farmers to produce the food and the distributors to deliver the food to the American people free of charge. The program didn’t require recipients to show any private information to qualify, such as Social Security Numbers or Drivers’ Licenses.

The Biden Administration has not announced any plans to replace the program although the effects from COVID-19 can still be felt in many parts of the country.