GFAFB participates in food drive for local communities Published Jan. 22, 2010 By Airman Laura J. Beckley 319th Air Refueling Wing Public GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- Grand Forks Air Force Base recently hosted a food drive for the local Grand Forks community. The base food drive lasted 15 days, utilizing the efforts of local boy and girl scouts, base community members and 55 active-duty volunteers with an estimated 485 hours of service. The base's Top 3 Community Events Board started the food drive as a small project for volunteers to give back to the community. Unexpectedly, their small event turned into a very large affair. On the first day of the project, seven full carts of food were collected at the base commissary, exceeding expectations of the volunteers. "After the first day it turned into something huge," said Master Sgt. Kelley Kerling, 319th Wing Plans and Inspections. "It wasn't just the Top 3 saying, 'hey can you donate?' it was the whole base community giving back to the Grand Forks and East Grand Forks communities." At the end of the volunteer event, Sergeant Kerling, with the help of Tech. Sgt. Tara Drafton, 319th Wing Plans and Inspections, organized and logged over 3,000 individual items at an estimated worth of $4,300. "To be able to give that amount back to the community for people that really need it," said Sergeant Kerling, "I think that was very satisfying." The collected donations of food were delivered to the Grand Forks Salvation Army, St. Vincent De Paul and the East Grand Forks Food Shelf. It was after delivering to the East Grand Forks Food Shelf that the food drive volunteers began to see what kind of an impact they were making. "It was the single largest mass donation they had ever received," said Sergeant Kerling.