Midshipman Action Group Honored for Record Donation

Post by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tyler Caswell

The Anne Arundel County Food and Resource Bank honored the U.S. Naval Academy’s Midshipman Action Group (MAG) for contributing more than 61,000 pounds of food during the 2013 Harvest for the Hungry Food and Funds Drive.

Mr. Bruce Michalec (left), director of the Anne Arundel County Food Bank gives
a plaque of recognition to Ensign Soon Kwon, Midshipman 1st Class Gabby
DiMaapi, and Midshipman 3rd Class Megan Rosenberger for their work with
the 2013 Harvest for the Hungry campaign.

The Maryland Department of Education-sponsored campaign encourages donations of money and food to help families in need of assistance. The median income for people in the workforce of Anne Arundel County is $41,876 and when that amount is tied to the Maryland self sufficiency standard of $58,048, there remains a gap of $16,172.

In the last six years, Anne Arundel County has contributed the most donations of all the state’s counties, and MAG contributed more than two-thirds of the 91,000 pounds collected in 2013.

“Maryland has more than 28,000 people who are food insufficient, a third of those being children,” said Teresa Tudor, Harvest for the Hungry coordinator. “The amount of food Midshipmen collected truly helped thousands of families make sure they could feed their children every meal. We would not be as successful without the partnership with USNA and the Midshipman Action Group.”

MAG collected food during sporting events, held drive competitions throughout the Brigade of Midshipman, and brought last year’s total donation to more than donations from 2011 and 2012  combined.

“Midshipmen sacrifice their limited free time to give back to the community.” said Ensign Soon Kwon, a 2013 USNA graduate who coordinated last year’s drive. “In addition to volunteering to serve their country, Midshipmen are giving more than what anyone has asked for by volunteering and donating.”

With one of the harshest winters on record, MAG engaged the brigade and Naval Academy chaplains to collect record donations of food to replenish food bank shelves for those most in need in the community.

“It was a season when the shelves were bare due to weather-related need and a county-wide drop in food donations,” said Miriam Stanicic, USNA’s community relations director. “Stepping in to fill that food gap was the goal that was set and met by the Naval Academy family with tremendous food deliveries, truckload after truckload. Service to the community at large is what the Naval Academy is all about.”

After a week of trucks transporting food from USNA, MAG contributions largely filled the Food Resource Bank’s 3,750 sq. foot facility.

“When the Anne Arundel County Food Bank said that the total food collected at the Naval Academy filled half of their large facility, Midshipmen were proud that more families in Anne Arundel County had the opportunity to receive more food than the years before,” said Kwon.

MAG will continue its efforts by supporting the Harvest for the Hungry: Kids Helping Kids Campaign which is slated to run from Oct. 13 through Oct. 31. For more information visit www.aacps.org.