"Stop Hunger at Your Station" program

This month is SEPTA's ninth annual "Stop Hunger at Your Station" campaign, in partnership with Philabundance. This program collects non-perishable food at major stations and terminals, and SEPTA also provides a bus across the region to make collections as well. Since 2009 SEPTA (employees, customers and the public) has donated approximately 139,000 pounds of food.

How successful is this program and why? Some smaller agencies use buses to collect food drives (DelDOT/DART being one, similarly, the CTA Holiday Train in Chicago began in 1992 as a non-revenue run to deliver food to local communities). Other agencies like NYCT or NJT seem to balk at the idea but SEPTA seems to work year after year in this program of "giving back". Perhaps a holiday season food drive could be tied in with SEPTA's holiday express (Black Friday).

"For the past eight years, we've collected tons of food for Philabundance, but you can't grasp the impact the donations will have with helping families in need until you visit the Hunger Relief Center," said SEPTA General Manager Jeffrey D. Knueppel. "From collecting the cans and boxes of food to sorting and packing them for distribution - it is an amazing operation. It is also a wake-up call to how prevalent hunger is in the Greater Philadelphia region."

A role model for other agencies, indeed.

I think a lot of it is that the program is making giving convenient for people. Going to the train station is a daily activity for thousands, so if they can give at their local station, people don't have to go out of their way in order to give.

I used to donate items when I was at Temple. I hope SEPTA keeps going with the Stop Hunger campaign. I also wish more transit agencies would do similar programs.