Gene Pitman: A knight to remember

Food and Nutrition, July, 1985 by Ralph E. Vincent

Gene Pitman, a food program specialist with USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, believes in his agency's mision to help people in need. He also believes that we are our brother's keeper, and he lives this belief both on and off the job.

Because of Pitman's outstanding efforts in organizing volunteers to help the needy, he has won a number of awards for community service. Working through the Knights of Columbus in Maryland, he has been recognized at the state and local level by a number of awards.

Last summer, Pitman received national recognition by winning the George Washington honor medal from the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge for the Community programs category. The award was conferred at a special ceremony in the U.S. Capitol. In January, he was presented with a resolution on behalf of the State of Maryland and a proclamation from the governor in Annapolis.

Pitman has been with the Food and Nutrition Service since 1969, the year the agency became an official entity. Before joining FNS, he was cashier and manager for the A&P food stores. Brought up in an Irish Catholic family in Roxbury, Massachusetts, he learned early about thrift, hard work, and responsibility. As the eldest son whose father died when he was 12, he had to quit school and began working the next year as a provider for the family.

"I'll do the best I can"

Pitman works in FNS' food distribution division and is involved in the inventory, shipping, and distribution of government foods around the country. The end product of these activities is getting food on the tables of the needy. One responsibility of the division is transporting shipments of food to disaster areas in the aftermath of floods and destructive storms.

One particular disaster--Hurricane Agnes in 1972--was catastrophic to many people and a transformation in Pitman's life. Following the storm and flooding, he was sent to Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, with a team of food distribution specialists from the FNS Washington and regional offices to coordinate efforts with state and local workers.

Pitman kept track of the inventories and, as shelters were set up for the flood victims, he supplied the necessary amount and kinds of foods at the sites. Ordinary office hours went by the board. They worked double shifts or sometimes around the clock. They stopped only when every shelter was provisioned or food was on the way.

Pitman has worked other disasters since, but a meeting with one of the survivors of Hurricane Agnes changed his life on the spot. He had worked 19 hours that day around and through the flood devastation of Wilkes Barre. It was time to go home, and he was riding in a jeep with a couple of national guardsmen when they saw a lone women walking along the darkened streets. Concerned for her welfare, Pitman suggested they stop to see if she needed any help.

They identified themselves to the woman and started to find out about her situation. They learned that the women's home, husband, and three children had been washed away in the flood.

"I'll never forget that woman the rest of my life," Pitman says. Her loss was a dramatic example of how deeply and suddenly tragedy can strike. "I don't know what I can do to help," Gene told her, "but whatever I do, I'll do the best I can."

Returned home and got to work

From that time on, Pitman's volunteer work on behalf of the poor and disadvantaged went into high gear. Through the Knights of Columbus, he developed a corps of 255 volunteers who work weekends and holidays. He also organized a list of blood donors for the elderly who are poor and is currently putting together an organ donor program.

He is enthusiastic about the volunteers he works with and directs. "One girl, who works for Agriculture and has a home computer, filed all of the figures for the volunteer program. She worked a whole year on it. These are the types of people who are out there. It's amazing."

Under Pitman's direction, volunteers have donated more than 7,200 hours and driven 8,171 miles during the past 2 years alone.

They work on a variety of projects that include assisting at shelters for homeless or battered women and men; obtaining and providing free medical equipment; providing such items as food, clothing, furniture, appliances, and services to area soup kitchens, child day care centers, orphanages, hospitals, summer camps, and homes for the physically or mentally impaired; and transporting elderly people to appointments, religious services, and food stores.

Gene is known as the person to call if someone needs help or has something to give. Last year, for example, Holy Name College in northeast Washington was sold to Howard University for its divinity school. The college had to be vacated by the end of May and they needed help in the disposition of furniture, beds, mattresses, desks, table lamps, typewriters, and other items.

One day the director of the college called Gene and said, "We have 120 rooms of furniture, and you're welcome to whatever you can carry out of here on Saturday." Within hours, Gene organized a crew of volunteers with enough trucks to virtually empty all 120 rooms in one day.