Local Food Drive Continues To Inspire

This week, we debut a new format for our popular weekly family column, "A Family Affair." The column will be written on a rotating basis by the "Family Affair" columnists for the Bethesda, North Potomac-Darnestown and Chevy Chase Patches. This week, the column is written by Maura Mahoney, a freelance journalist and mother of three who lives in the Town of Somerset in Chevy Chase.

If you’ve lived in the area for any amount of time, you’ve seen them. They appear on your front porch or doorstep in early December—brown paper grocery bags with a neatly typed request for canned food stapled to one side. Within a day or two, they disappear.

The bags are a herald of the holiday season, and the hallmark of a special local tradition: the Greg Gannon Canned Food Drive.

Simply put, the canned food drive is a story about how one man, and one family, came up with and carried out an idea that has inspired and energized countless other families in our area for nearly 25 years.

In the late 1980s, Greg Gannon, a parishioner at the Shrine of Blessed Sacrament on Chevy Chase Circle, started a food drive with his wife, “Mo,” to help feed the poor. Together with a small group of friends and family, they went from door to door, collecting cans and boxed food items, delivering much-need help—and hope—to those in need.

The canned food drive was part and parcel of Gannon's lifelong dedication to helping others. A high school teacher and community leader, he founded the Higher Achievement Program, an academic enrichment course for disadvantaged youth, while teaching at Gonzaga College High School. Since its founding 30 years ago, the program has aided more than 10,000 District students.

Eventually, Gannon persuaded his brother Rick to take over the helm of the drive in 2000, but he continued to be involved even after his diagnosis of brain cancer in 2001, right up until his death in 2006, at the age of 55.

Greg Gannon’s food drive grew to exceed anyone’s expectations: Hundreds of people have participated in the yearly drive, and more than 720,000 cans of food have been collected and donated to area food banks. Once people participate, they tend to make it an annual family ritual. Nearly 80 percent of the volunteers have done it more than once, with many participating for years. Nearly 600 people helped out last year alone.

Over the years, four generations of Gannons have been involved in the drive. According to Rick Gannon, his mom, his kids, his nephews and nieces, and now his nephew’s kids, have all participated. Gannon is quick to emphasize, however, that what is so appealing about the tradition is that so many families have come and helped over the years.

“I’ve always liked the comment one of the volunteers once made,” he says. “The canned food drive is like an old-fashioned barn-raising.”

Seeing so many people pitch in like that has a profound affect on the kids who participate.

“It’s a great way to give our kids things to see, and feel, and do,” says Gannon, “so they really understand what it’s like to help others.”

Moreover, this huge community effort it has an impact that goes beyond inspiring participants to help others—it also helps begin to meet a tremendous need. According to Lynn Brantley, the president and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank, “over the years, this food drive has significantly helped us meet increased demand and ensure that all our neighbors have enough to eat.”

This year, the drive has taken on new meaning and new purpose: In honor of Blessed Sacrament’s 100^th anniversary, Gannon and Father John Enzler, the former pastor (who is now at Catholic Charities in Washington, DC), decided to launch a new campaign, “100,000 Cans for 100 Years.”

While the parish will celebrate its centennial in several ways (including a birthday party on Oct. 7), the "100,000 Cans for 100 Years" campaign is a way to celebrate that milestone by bringing the community together in a massive effort to help out neighboring communities like never before.  According to Gannon, they are well on their way toward their goal: As of September, the campaign has gathered 27,000 cans and boxed food items. He says, “The need is huge, and while it will take a tremendous effort to reach our goal, we are confident we can do so.”

If you would like to help, visit the parish's website to donate money that will be used to purchase canned foods. You can also deliver canned goods to the Parish Center, located on Quesada St. The annual Greg Gannon Canned food drive will be held December 3rd.