A Simple Gesture Partners With Guilford County Recycling Event April 25

With 82,510 Guilford County residents living with food insecurity, a four-hour window at a county-run drive-through is one of the more efficient single-day collection opportunities A Simple Gesture gets. Guilford County's Spring Recycling Event runs Saturday, April 25 from 8 a.m. to noon at Eastern Guilford Middle School (435 Peeden Drive, Gibsonville), and the county has named ASG as the official host of its Food Drive Station.

The drive-through format sets the operational tempo. Donors stay in their vehicles while staff and volunteers unload directly from trunks and back seats, meaning every exchange at the ASG station involves a lift from a moving-car environment. Coordinators should plan shift rosters with at least one dedicated safety supervisor whose sole job is managing vehicle-to-volunteer traffic flow. That role is not a sorter or a loader; it is a spotter.

The county has published the full accepted-items list for the food station, and it is specific enough to drive both donor communications and on-site screening. Canned goods are the backbone: tuna, vegetables, beans, fruit, soups, chili, tomato sauce, and 12 oz. baby formula are all welcome. Boxed and bagged staples such as cereal, oatmeal, macaroni and cheese, rice, and beans round out the dry-goods side. Acceptable snacks include crackers, granola bars, unsweetened applesauce, and 100% juice boxes. Stage 2 baby formula, peanut butter, jelly, and pasta sauce also make the list. One firm exclusion: glass jars will not be accepted. Decline them at the vehicle window rather than accepting and sorting later.

For the loading-zone setup, that exclusion drives the first piece of signage. Pre-position a sorting table with a clear visual separation between accepted sealed goods and rejected items, and stage a dedicated bin for any glass that arrives despite pre-event guidance. Expiration-date checks should happen at the table, not at the car window, to keep the line moving. Label all outbound pallets by destination pantry before the first vehicle arrives; quick-turn distribution to partner pantries depends on that prep being done before 8 a.m., not after noon.

The food station will share the Eastern Guilford Middle School site with several other county-run services. Appliances, electronics, foam, cardboard, plastic bags, tires, and secure shredding of up to five file boxes per household are all accepted at separate stations. The Guilford County Sheriff's Office runs a Medication Take-Back station for unwanted prescriptions, over-the-counter medicine, and pills. That multi-station footprint is a volume driver: residents combining several errands in one trip generate sustained traffic across the full four hours rather than a single early-morning surge.

Business waste will not be accepted anywhere on site. Volunteers staffing the vehicle lane should be prepared to redirect any commercial vehicles before they reach the loading area.

To commit a team, contact Rebecca Conway at rebecca@asimplegesturegso.org. For county-side logistics and the site floor plan, reach GCSO Public Information Officer Bria Evans at bevans2@guilfordcountync.gov or 336-641-2752. With 15 days between now and the 8 a.m. start, shift sign-ups published to the ASG volunteer listserv today still leave a full two weeks to confirm rosters, stage equipment, and brief volunteers before the first car pulls in.