ALIVE! has given away hundreds of thousands of pounds of food since the onset of the pandemic, and on Monday the nonprofit got an additional boost with the donation of a large refrigerated shipping container.

The trailer was a gift from AMX Leasing, which is a part of Abilene Motor Express. It was arranged by Alexandria Living Legend Marion Moon, the CEO of the Convention Tradeshow Freight Specialists.

“Marion came to us and asked, ‘What do you need?’ and we replied, ‘Refrigeration,’ and Marion delivered,'” said ALIVE! Executive Director Jennifer Ayers. “Marion saw a need for us to have the right tools to expand our operations to serve more Alexandrian’s in need.”

The shipping container will be housed at the AlexRenew property at 1800 Limerick Street. The container will give ALIVE! much-needed refrigerated space and storage.

Richmond-based Abilene Motor Express has seen strong business over the last several months.

“Due to that, when Marion reached out with the opportunity to help others that have been affected more than us we were more than happy to help,” said Alan K. Jones of Abiline Motors.

Ayers said that food insecurity is rising with the pandemic.

“We distributed over 170,000 pounds of food last month without refrigeration,” she said. “By having the extra storage space, our logistics will be more efficient and we will be able to distribute more fresh foods like meat, eggs, produce, and dairy to more people – providing more nutrition to people in need.”

Courtesy photos