DOT Secretary Ray LaHood has announced the participation of his department and its employees in the third annual Feds Feed Families food drive, through which federal employees collect as much non-perishable food as possible for area food shelters.

“The goal of the overall 2011 drive is to collect two million pounds of food,” LaHood stated. “While that’s an ambitious benchmark, we believe it’s attainable—especially when the federal workforce exceeded its 2010 goal.”

The secretary noted that DOT has set a goal of 58,100 pounds of food for this year’s drive, and has launched an intra-agency competition to see which agency in the department can collect the most food.

“Regardless of which intra-agency team wins each year, these donations remind us of how fortunate many of us are, and how important it is to help those who are struggling. I’m proud to see the tremendous generosity of the DOT family and the entire federal workforce,” he added.

The government-wide effort is led by the Chief Human Capital Officers Council in partnership with the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Agriculture.

As part of its efforts for Feds Feed Families, DOT invited teams from each of its agencies to take three hours to build creative structures using donated food. The Federal Railroad Administration won this year’s Can Castle Competition, using 6,000 items of food to create a train scene.	The federal workforce exceeded its goal in the 2010 food drive, and DOT hopes to collect 58,100 pounds of food this year.