Garbage collectors take care of a lot of stuff many of us prefer not to think about. And for the past seven years, one especially thoughtful sanitation driver in Silver Spring, Md., not only collects his community’s trash, he also keeps an eye out for people who need help.
In 2007, Harvey was driving his route for Waste Management when he noticed a lot of people sleeping out on the streets — despite the fact that there were shelters nearby. “Sometimes I guess when the shelters get full they have no other place to go,” Harvey tells Good Morning America. “So they’ve got to turn to the streets even if it’s for a night or two they’re out there.”
Harvey couldn’t get the homeless people out of his mind. He and his wife Theresa began to make sandwiches and collect blankets, which he then distributed. But Harvey wanted to help even more. According to People Magazine, his brother helped him make a video of the homeless people along his route, which he showed his manager and then asked, “Is there anything we can do as a company?”
Harvey began to collect donations at work, and he and his wife soon founded God’s Connection Transition, a nonprofit that helps 5,000 homeless and low-income people a month. The Harveys convinced companies including Safeway, Pepperidge Farm and Costco to donate food, which they stock in a rented Gaithersburg warehouse. Hundreds of needy families stop in once a week to shop for what they need.
“As long as I know there’s somebody out here … It’s hard to go home sit at a table eat a meal,” Harvey, who still delivers care packages to homeless people in the early morning hours, tells Good Morning America.
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