Disposal team expertise places surplus mission goods in Maryland food banks
 By Jeff Landenberger
  Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services personnel recently assisted Marines to clear out excess material and steer surplus COVID and humanitarian relief property to needy families in Maryland. Disposal Services Representative Rodney Boyd, a member of the agency’s property disposal site in Richmond, Virginia, came across a Marine unit that had secured space at Fort Pickett to consolidate their unwanted property, but they were unsure of what further to do with it. Workers of the Anne Arundel County food bank in Maryland show some of the excess property they received from the Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services that will help members of their community.




Four people hold boxes of supplies with other boxes of supplies near them.
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            Workers of the Anne Arundel County food bank in Maryland show some of the excess property they received from the Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services that will help members of their community.

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                    Photo By: Anne Arundel County food bank
                    
                    VIRIN: 220220-O-AA987-007 Boyd inspected the items and said he immediately knew the property was in high demand within DOD and public agencies. The items had been compiled after the Marines’ humanitarian missions had ended. Boyd said they had blankets, diapers, hand sanitizer and much more – and in large quantities. Boyd went to work on educating the Marines on the process for turning over the excess property to DLA Disposition Services. But the Marines were not a tenant command of Fort Pickett, so the items needed to be removed from the installation. Boyd told them that, unfortunately, his home site of Richmond was unable to store some of the items because considered hazardous material – like the large quantity of hand sanitizer. Boyd and other members of the DLA team were still able to get the items to the DLA Disposition Services Norfolk site for safe storage. Richmond site Area Manager Raymond Johnson said that once the property became available for reuse, it did not take long for a request to arrive. One of the first requestors was the Maryland Surplus Property Division. Division Director Edward Nunez said his division has used DLA Disposition Services before for supplies and knew that the items being offered from the Richmond site would be in high demand and have a positive impact on the people of his state. Once Maryland received the items, they were distributed to non-profits throughout the state. The impact was felt at organizations like the Anne Arundel County food bank. “The items that we acquired, which included 1,771 cases of diapers and wipes, allowed us to restock the shelves of 13 baby pantries in Anne Arundel County,” said Leah Paley, chief executive officer of the food bank. Paley explained that since the COVID-19 pandemic began, they had seen a significant jump in requests for diapers and wipes, which are items that neither the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or the Women, Infants, and Children subsidy cover. “Due to supply chain issues, these items have often been difficult for the Anne Arundel County Food Bank to obtain,” Paley said. “We were also able to share some of these donated items with six other non-profit organizations located throughout the State of Maryland.” Paley said that she and her team are grateful to the Maryland Department of General Services and DLA Disposition Services for making the donation possible.