Last year we were completely overwhelmed by your support of our Neighborhood Food Drive. Our office was literally flooded with brown paper grocery bags stuffed with food for the I AM Food Pantry at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, which is right next door to our office. For days on end it was a steady stream of neighbors dropping off food and stopping by to say hello. There was a joy and an excitement in the air. I remember one neighbor in particular, who stopped in just to tell us “thank you for uniting the neighborhood.” To be honest, all we did was provide an opportunity for neighbors to help neighbors. Y’all did the uniting. You took a cause and rallied behind it and completely blew us out of the water. We thought we’d get a decent amount of food bags back, but we had no idea that our office would be overrun with them! And it was inspiring!

food driveIt was that food drive that really solidified the opportunity we have here at Team Callahan to be the launching pad for great causes. Sure, we sell real estate and do a great job at it, but it’s being involved in our community that really gets our hearts going.

This year we began our Neighborhood Food Drive with an even bigger goal. Instead of delivering bags to 1,800 of our surrounding neighbors, we set a goal of  2,700 bags! We owe a huge thank you to Whole Foods Savannah for donating the bags themselves as well as Creative Approach for donating all of the printing. Our team and some generous volunteers gathered around the front table at our office and began stapling away, after all those flyers don’t attach themselves. We enjoyed great conversation and even a couple of holiday movies while we worked.

food drive

We hand delivered the bags for the food drive over the course of three days. We were a little team of elves walking the streets of Baldwin Park, Ardsley Park, Parkside, and even part of Midtown going door to door passing out bags. We met a lot of great neighbors who had been anxiously awaiting the delivery of the bags. And, being in the real estate business after all, we couldn’t help but fall in love all over again with the beautiful homes and architectural details. It’s amazing the detail you can see when you slow down and just walk.

Literally the first day we were out delivering bags, neighbors started showing up at our office dropping them off filled with canned goods, non-perishables, and even some sweet treats for the families helped by the I Am Food Pantry. By the time the scheduled pick-up dates rolled around we had 60+ bags already in our office! Our office was literally flooded once again with bags by the end; from sprawling out from under our Christmas Tree to surrounding our conference room table to meandering in and around the desks and tables.  483 bags!!! Four-hundred-eighty-three-bags!!! Holy cow! We were shocked! You should have seen the look on Father Kevin’s face when he walked in the office on Monday morning. The volunteers and parishioners at St. Michael’s were amazed and so gracious. The I Am Food Pantry supports 50-70 people per week, which translates into 500-600 people per month when you include family members. Wow! Watch this video to learn more from one of their volunteers.

This Neighborhood Food Drive has blessed us and this community in more ways than you know. It was so much fun for us to take a break from selling houses and just focus on giving back. Neighbors were so excited to be part of something bigger than themselves and to have the opportunity to help. Volunteers both at St. Michael’s and those that help with food bag delivery and pick up were full of joy. What an honor to be part of this community! Thank you for being a neighborhood that cares, a neighborhood that bands together in good times and bad, and a neighborhood of helping.