Crossville Veterans Food Drive Expands Drop Off Locations Across City

The Crossville Royal Duties Caring For Our Veterans Food Drive has expanded to 12 drop off locations around town.

Sponsored by the Miss Senior Cumberland County Association, the food drive will be running through Veterans Day Weekend. Food Drive Lead Organizer Connie Clapper said the expansion is due to a combination of both an increase in need and people wanting to get involved.

“Well, it started during the pandemic,” Clapper said. “I as Miss Senior Cumberland County at the time was quite frustrated not being able to get out and represent and do good work to the community being that everything was shut down. And I thought that this was a social distancing program that could be easily done.”

Clapper said that she tries to prioritize food gathered for Cumberland veterans. Clapper said the food drive originally had just five drop off points around various food stores. Clapper said she and her fellow volunteers have been blown away by the level of support they have found.

“We’ve grown it to where the community is so involved,” Clapper said. “The Veterans Associations all-around Cumberland County are working together.”

Clapper said she was driven to organize food drives because they are simple helpful acts people can rally around.

“My original thought was doing something for the veterans,” Clapper said. “ we’re very veteran-strong here in our area and there’s healthy veterans that are supporting us so we’re not alone in this program, it’s become a community project.”