Inspiring: Donated Forklift Helps Charity Feed Needy Children

A donated forklift was the center of a heartwarming holiday story last week in Southern California. Forklifts are used mainly in the industrial sector and you seldom hear about them being used for charitable purposes. The forklift was donated to help a nonprofit improve their processes so they could help more needy children.

Where was it donated?

The donated forklift was donated to a privately funded Southern California charity called Got Your Back. This charity is a part of the nonprofit American Relief Organization. Got Your Back provides weekend food assistance to homeless or underprivileged children.

What is “Got Your Back”?

The organization started four years ago after public school teachers and nurses noticed a strange trend. They began noticing that homeless or underprivileged children were coming to school on Monday mornings, famished from having little to no food all weekend. The program started by providing assistance to 20 children and has now expanded to serve 180 needy public school children. They provide six meals and two snacks for children who don’t have enough to eat at home over the weekend.

How does it work?

The food is either purchased in bulk at a discounted rate or donated to Got Your Back. The food is stored at their warehouse in Oceanside, California. Once the food is sorted and organized, it is packaged. Food items such as, peanut butter and granola bars, is then packed into backpacks and delivered to school.

How forklifts help

The warehouse that Got Your Back uses as a storage and staging area for their food is extremely small. The food is organized and sorted with related items and put on pallets or in crates or boxes. The food must then be manually stocked onto the high shelves in the small warehouse. Volunteers for the charity were previously using only manpower and old ladders to get the food onto the shelves. The donated forklift has helped the charity move and store the food more efficiently. This means they can spend less time hauling the food through the warehouse and more time actually distributing the food.

This story shows that forklifts can be beneficial even in places you’d least expect it. If you are interested in a used forklift for sale, contact Forklift Nation today.