Downtown residents feed Dempsey elderly
Change The Tracts held its first grocery box donation at the historic downtown hotel earlier this month.
The Dempsey Hotel downtown holds 194 low-income subsidized apartments for the elderly.
A handful of volunteers pulled up to the hotel in a U-Haul on Nov. 14 and handed out boxes filled with chips, canned beans, spaghetti and cookies to residents.
The volunteers were members of Change The Tracts, a recently formed nonprofit focused on community health and outreach.
Change The Tracts was started last year by Patrick Haynes, a Florida native who moved to downtown Macon about three years ago.
The idea for the grocery donations manifested as Haynes noticed all of the Dempsey residents and older folks hanging out on the corner. Haynes said he wanted to try and help them out. He gave out leftover muffins to the corner men the first Thanksgiving he had in Macon.
“I think they might be overlooked sometimes, everyone walks by and nobody says anything,” he said. “I’m a real mama’s boy so I just see it like, ‘I wouldn’t want anyone to just walk by my mama.’”
The organization received $2,500 in August through the Central Georgia Empowerment Fund, which supports Black leaders in nonprofits through the Community Foundation of Central Georgia.
Change The Tracts partnered with the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank to stock his boxes and during the dropoff volunteers gave out 600 pounds of food to 50 seniors at the Dempsey, Haynes said.
Many of the residents rely on social security benefits to make ends meet, Haynes added. With the SNAP freeze, he thought giving away food would be a good way to help.
“It was just a heartwarming feeling to see people with a genuine smile,” said volunteer Adam McDuffie Jr. “If people were in need we weren’t going to stop them from getting free food.”
The organization will return to the Dempsey over the next couple of months or for as long as the funds last, Haynes said.
Haynes has previously tried to promote a plant-based diet and diabetes awareness on the organization’s instagram, although he started keeping it to his personal account as interest wavered.
Haynes was vegan for 10 years and ran a cooking group and a vegan taco shop before starting the grocery giveaway.
This story is part of a Melody series highlighting local nonprofits.
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