NSSA Employees Open Their Hearts During the Holidays

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- Norfolk Ship Support Activity's (NSSA) Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence Systems (C4I) Division donated 2,459 pounds of canned goods and non-perishable food items to the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia, Norfolk, Va., Nov. 19.

The Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia provides nutritious canned, boxed, fresh, frozen, and prepared food to over 414,000 individuals per year, distributing emergency food through soup kitchens, faith-based food pantries, neighborhood centers, family crisis centers, and homeless shelters for adults and children.

The food drive was an effort to help eliminate hunger within the Hampton Roads community.

"We wanted to make a concious effort to support the less fortunate," said Tommy Lamb, NSSA's Satellite Communications Branch Manager. "We were proactive and made sure our personnel understood what the benefits were, and they stepped up to the plate and contributed a lot. We are very appreciative of that."

Lamb organized the food drive this year by building a friendly competition among the individual codes within the C4I Division to see which code would donate the most canned food.

NSSA's AN/SQQ-89(V), Surface Vessel Torpedo Tube (SVTT), and Surface Fire Control Division, donated 500 cans with only 13 people in the department. "It was pretty much a group effort. Everybody just decided they were going to pitch in all that they could," said Dave Mills, AN/SQQ-89(V), SVTT, and Surface Fire Control Division branch manager.

Electronics Technician 1st Class Matt Anseth played a major roll in loading the food into his truck and delivering it to the Foodbank.

"It was a really big deal to be a part of such a large donation because of all the people we could help, how everybody came together, how much they donated, and what it meant to us," said Anseth. "To see their faces at the Foodbank, how surprised they were, and how much food we brought over felt really good."

For more information on Norfolk Ship Support Activity, please visit: https://www.nssa.nmci.navy.mil.

For more information on the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia please visit; http://www.foodbankonline.org.

For more news from Norfolk Ship Support Activity, visit www.navy.mil/local/nssa/.