For 12 years, Elvin Birth lived at the Murphey School Apartments, an affordable housing community for seniors located in the historic Oakwood neighborhood. Each month while living there, Elvin, along with all the other residents at Murphey School, would receive a bag of food—non-perishables and fresh produce—from Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. This food would help stretch Elvin’s food budget, ensuring that he ate a more nutritious diet, and the volunteers delivering the food provided some much-needed social interaction for seniors receiving the food.
Elvin Birth, who is 95 years old, left Murphey School three years ago and today lives with his daughter, Terri, in Timberlake. He never forgot the feeling of support he received from those monthly deliveries of food and human contact. Elvin wanted a way to give something back, and this month he and Terri paid a visit to the Food Shuttle Farm and made a very generous donation of $65,000.
On a bright May afternoon, Elvin and Terri were met at the Farm by Food Shuttle President and CEO L. Ron Pringle, and Cofounder Jill Staton Bullard. Also on hand were Food Shuttle Assistant Warehouse Manager Travis Avery, who used to make the monthly deliveries to Murphey School, and Jonathan Lee, Director of Agriculture Programs. Sitting in the shade of the Food Shuttle Farm Stand, everyone gathered around to reminisce about Elvin’s days at Murphey School and how the Food Shuttle got its start. Elvin expressed his appreciation for the mission of the organization and its foundation in food recovery. “ ‘Waste not, want not’ is my philosophy, and that’s what you do,” said Elvin, appreciatively.
Elvin grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania in the early part of the 20th century. He made the check presentation at the Farm because he said he’d always wanted to see the Food Shuttle Farm in action. Jonathan Lee gave Elvin a brief tour of the Farm—including the tractors, which he was particularly interested in seeing. “I used to work behind the plow pulled by a mule,” Elvin remembered, laughing. He discussed farming methods with Jonathan and admired the variety of crops currently in the fields.
Elvin had done his homework on the Food Shuttle, having read through the entire website before coming out to the Farm. When he presented the check to Jill Bullard and Ron Pringle, he told them that the money was from an annuity, and “No one needs this money more than you do to keep doing the work that you do.”
Thank you, Elvin. Thanks to supporters like you, we’ll keep doing the work that we do.
