NEWS

Charity Heavy Weights: DIA Donates 11,057 Pounds of Nonperishable Food Items 

DIA Public Affairs

September 21, 2012

During the summer months, food banks traditionally encounter a decrease in the level of giving due to holidays and other demands on donors' time. The federal-wide Feds Feed Families (FFF) summer food drive is a way to help food banks stock up and serve families who are in need during this time of the year. After three months of collecting donations from many of DIA's locations – including DIA Headquarters, DIA Logistics Operations Center in Landover, Md., and Reston, Clarendon, Charlottesville and Quantico, Va. – the agency collected 11,057 pounds of food.

The FFF campaign may have had a slow start in June, but donation activity picked up rapidly when DIA senior leaders started the five-week friendly competition. Every week these DIA seniors, divided into groups, collected more and more food with the goal of bragging rights as "number one" donator. Altogether, this friendly competition contributed 2,237 pounds of food toward DIA's collective donation.

DIA also entered four of its best golf players to participate in the Feds Feed Families Golf Tournament at Bristow Manor Golf Club in Bristow, Va., July 29. To enter, each participating agency was required to donate 200 pounds of food, and the winning agency received all the food donated to the tournament. DIA helped the tournament raise more than two tons of food for the Northern Virginia Food Bank.

Another success, "One Can Day," was a command-endorsed activity in August motivating DIA employees agency-wide to bring in one can (one pound) of food, with a goal to raise three tons of food in a single day. Generous employees brought in one can or shopping bags full of cans, raising more than 1,300 pounds and another several hundred more pounds the next day.

DIA's "One Mission, One Team, One Agency" mantra made this year's FFF campaign the exceptional success it is. Volunteers turned out every week to spread the word, distribute flyers, pack and weigh donated food, and transport food to the Capital Area Food Bank. Throughout the entire campaign's run, DIA never had a shortage in volunteers. From the DIA Police to analysts to support staff, everyone wanted to show their support and help families in need.

Even though the campaign ended at DIA, food donations are still needed by area families. If you are interested in donating, or if you just want to learn more about the 2012 campaign's final donation tally, please go to www.fedsfeedfamilies.gov.

DIA is the nation’s premier all-source military intelligence organization.

It provides the nation’s most authoritative assessments of foreign military intentions and capabilities. The agency’s four core competencies -- human intelligence, all-source analysis, counterintelligence and technical intelligence -- enable military operations while also informing policy-makers at the defense and national levels.

DIA’s mission is unique and no other agency matches its military expertise across such a broad range of intelligence disciplines.