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As more west Georgia families depend on local food banks for meals, some of those organizations are feeling the strain of the increased numbers. A partnership between two local organizations is trying to ease that burden.
West Georgia Disaster Relief and Southwire Company are joining forces for West Georgia Can, a food drive slated to take place throughout October. Organizers plan to collect food during Southwire’s annual Community Day event on Oct. 15. Coinciding collections are planned at Midway Church and in Heard and Haralson counties.
“We started with the idea of collecting a supply of relief supplies we could store and have on hand in case of a disaster,” said Josh McCorsley, a founding member of West Georgia Disaster Relief. “Then we realized we’re facing a sort of disaster now with more and more people turning to local food banks to help feed their families.”
Organizers are encouraging local businesses, churches, schools and other organizations to conduct food drives of their own.
“We will make arrangements to pick up the food they collect and get it to the various groups that will distribute it,” McCorsley said.
Founded a few months ago, West Georgia Disaster Relief includes public safety officials, business representatives, American Red Cross volunteers and others from Carroll, Haralson and Heard counties. During a recent meeting, the group discussed conducting a food drive with plans to store a small percentage of the food collected for disaster relief and distribute the rest to local organizations.
“That fit perfectly with our plans to collect food during Community Day,” said Gary Leftwich, Southwire’s corporate communications manager and a member of West Georgia Disaster Relief.
“We have been considering the idea of a food drive for a while,” Leftwich said. “We decided to start small by including a collection as part of our Community Day activities. But, by combining our efforts with West Georgia Disaster Relief’s plans, we feel we can have a far greater impact through West Georgia Can.”
The Manna House at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church , which serves about 500 families a month, has seen requests for assistance climb in recent months, especially among younger families. Officials with Lifeline Mission, sponsored by Midway Church, say they now are serving 400 people a month, up from 160 a couple of months ago.
“We served more than 6,000 individuals last year,” said Paul Gentry, director of benevolence with Lifeline Mission. “We have served more than 8,000 this year with three months to go.”
During the Community Day event, volunteers from Southwire’s Project GIFT team and West Georgia Disaster Relief will collect items from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the company’s main parking lot across from its corporate headquarters off Dixie Street. Volunteers also will collect food at Midway Church on Highway 61 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Other collection sites include the Bremen Town Festival and the Heard County Fire Department.
Other sites that will collect food through Oct. 31 include the fire departments in Carroll and Heard counties, the Carrollton Fire Department, Victory Fellowship in Bremen, Bremen First United Methodist Church, Midway Church and Southwire. Other drop off sites are being identified.
Organizers are seeking staple food items, such as bags of rice, canned beans, canned green beans, canned corn, canned meats, canned fruit and jars of peanut butter.
“We’re looking for the basics – those items that will allow families to have hot, nutritional meals,” McCorsley said.
With the motto “Helping feed our neighbors,” West Georgia Can organizers are considering staging another drive in the spring.
“The need to collect food will not go away overnight,” McCorsley said. “As long as that need exists, we will do everything we can to ensure our neighbors in west Georgia have enough to eat.”