Maconites find ways to feed the community

June O’Neal runs a food pantry out of her garage where for the past three summers she has been making and handing out meals for hungry kids during the summer.

Last week, late into a delivery run, she encountered a boy she had met wandering around with nothing to do the week before.

“One little boy came running out and said, ‘I thought you weren’t coming,’” she said. “He was just so incredibly precious.”

Across 24 Middle Georgia counties, roughly 15% of residents, 107,000 people, are food insecure, said Kathy McCollum, president and CEO of Middle Georgia Community Food Bank. Of those, 38,540 are children. 

The USDA defines food insecurity as not having enough food or not knowing where your next meal is coming from. Food insecurity can present itself in different ways, O’Neal said, and that it “could live next door to you.”

O’Neal’s summer feeding program started under the Mentor’s Project, a nonprofit that works with the Bibb County School District to match mentors with middle and high school students. The pandemic stopped its summer feeding program, so the Mentor’s Project began making meals on their own.

“We provide wraparound services because we think that children can’t go to school and focus if they’re homeless or hungry, ” she said.

Serving people from ‘all different walks of life’

Macon Community Fridge, located behind Steward Chapel in downtown Macon, serves as a spot for people to pick up and drop off packaged meals and drinks.

Lou Matthews, who runs the fridge with her partner, said when they held an event earlier this month, there were people getting food from “all different walks of life.”

“Some folks pulled up in cars, so you knew they had somewhere to sleep at night but they were still food insecure,” she said. “Food insecurity doesn’t discriminate here.”

She added the fridge serves to not only increase access to food but also to give unhoused individuals “that dignity back to make their own decisions about what they take.”

While O’Neal’s pantry is stocked by who she calls her “angel friends,” Middle Georgia Community Food Bank stocks over 140 food pantries across the region, and distributed a total of 2.7 million tons of food from April through June this year, McCollum said.

The food bank receives funding but also gets food from donations and collects food from retail stores. They have a freezer for fresh foods and encourage people to donate low-sugar or low-sodium options.

“If food is not working in your family, a lot of other things aren’t working right,” McCollum said.

O’Neal said food insecurity can force people to resort to eating less healthy, typically cheaper foods, causing health problems like diabetes or heart disease.

Growing and processing fresh produce for people in need

Susan Fisher, the garden manager at Brookdale Resource Center, said healthy food can make you feel better and clear your mind. This mantra was the idea behind the garden at Brookdale Resource Center, Fisher said, which planted its first seeds in April 2023. 

Fisher said the center harvested 4,200 pounds of produce — like tomatoes, cucumbers, corn — over its first year in operation. So far this year, they’ve pulled up 1949 pounds, which goes straight to the kitchen at Brookdale for feeding people experiencing homelessness.

She said working in the garden fosters a sense of community and helps uplift people who have hit “rock bottom.” 

Community-driven gardening

Centenary Community Ministries Inc., a nonprofit separate from the church it’s located behind, also operates an open community garden, which has 22 rentable garden plots.

Melissa Rodriguez-McClain, executive director of CCMI, said access to produce has been hampered by the loss of the Kroger on Pio Nono Avenue, and the garden was a way to reach out and care for the community.

“[The plots] were specifically designed so that people in Beall’s Hill and Napier Heights, if they didn’t have yards, could come and grow their own food,” said Rodriguez-McClain.

Eight of the plots are reserved for “the community of Macon,” with harvests going directly to their community fridge, where anyone can stop by and grab or drop off food.

The community garden is just one of the organization’s programs that helps combat homelessness and fuel community revitalization, like their transitional housing or bike recycling programs.

The group rents out the garden plots for $15, but also sells “plot packages” that allow purchasers to have CCMI manage a plot for them and send them meal kits, with a portion of those funds used to feed families in need. Gardening classes are also available.

How to get involved