People Are Leaving Snacks For Delivery Workers This Holiday Season, and It's Heart-Warming

Kelsey Hurwitz
Photo credit: Lisa Gwin
Photo credit: Lisa Gwin

From Woman's Day

For the individuals who are tasked with making sure our holiday gifts are delivered on time and in one piece, the holiday season is an incredibly busy time. And sometimes during the high pressure days of delivering holiday gifts, little acts of kindness can make the biggest difference. A few snack bags of cookies and some bottled water did just that for a delivery driver whose excited reaction to the free snacks was shared in a recent viral video. The video, which was captured on a Ring doorbell camera and posted on Facebook by Kathy Ouma, shows a delivery man approaching the door with a box, and upon seeing the snacks he says, "Ah, they got some goodies! Wow! Oh, this is sweet! Oh, wow, get out of here!" The sweetest part, however, comes after he takes a couple snacks and stops to happy dance on his way back to his truck.

Ouma had left the snacks on her porch with a sign addressed to delivery drivers that said “Please take some goodies to enjoy on your route. Thank you for making holiday shopping easy.” And this small act of kindness hasn’t gone unnoticed — the video has been viewed over 16 million times so far.

Although Ouma’s adorable video has started an online conversation about kindness, she isn't the first friendly neighbor to leave out a box of treats for hardworking delivery people. Over the past few years, photos have circulated during the holiday seasons of goody baskets people have left outside for delivery drivers who are extra swamped with holiday packages.

Tina Digilio from La Vista, Nebraska, for example, has been leaving delivery drivers treats for a few years now. Digilio has young children and relies on online shopping to get a lot of her household goods, getting packages delivered around three times per week. She tends to put out drinks and snacks at various points in the year, usually in the hottest days of the summer and around the holiday season. “We really believe in having good karma,” she tells Woman's Day.

Digilio's family has a Ring doorbell, so she can see when she’s getting a delivery. She makes a point to say thank you, and has gotten to know the drivers who regularly deliver her packages. “We have one guy who delivers here all the time, and he always dances with his snacks,” she says. “I have one delivery driver who actually leaves bones for our dog.”

It was her husband, Matt, a police officer, who originally posted about his wife leaving snacks for delivery drivers on Twitter. Digilio said the post garnered a lot of positive attention, and many people said they were inspired to do the same. “It’s nice for us because Matt sees a lot of negative all day, and to have him see some positive makes us all happy,” she says.

Lisa Gwin, a small business owner in Alexandria, Louisiana, who has also been leaving snacks for her delivery drivers for a few years tells Woman's Day, “People are quick to chime in about what is placed in these goody baskets, but from first hand experience, our drivers didn't care what was in there! They were just appreciative we thought of them." Over the years, she's adjusted what she puts in her goody basket to include healthier snacks that will fuel the drivers through their long days, "but it's always things that are easy to grab and eat on the go,” she says.

“I just think it’s really important to give back if you can make somebody smile once a day, that’s great. You never know what they’re going through,” Digilio says, nothing that especially around the holiday season when so many people are shopping online and expecting on-time deliveries, it’s important to be kind to the people who deliver your packages.

Gwin shared a similar sentiment, saying that the holidays are a time for family, and she tries to be extra kind to those who have to spend more time working and less time with loved ones. “Their days are long, which causes them to miss out on a lot of the family holiday fun, and a lot of that is because of our increase in online shopping or shipping Christmas presents," Gwin says. "I may not be able to help them get through their deliveries sooner, but I can at least help spread some Christmas cheer and show them that I notice their hard work and appreciate them."

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