‘We just fed 400 people last week’: Sandwich-slinging locals give back

Cullen Cummings often worked alone when he started making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for people in need. He started off with about 20 PB&Js, he said, which felt like an accomplishment.

But over the past month, Cummings and an ever-growing group of volunteers have cranked out hundreds of sandwiches. Last week, 18 volunteers made and packaged 392 sandwiches to stock up community fridges around Macon.

“It’s a great opportunity to show what a single person can do if they stay persistent,” Cummings said.

The group typically meets on Thursday mornings at Centenary United Methodist, where one of the fridges they deliver to is located. This week, a dozen volunteers met inside a church off Vineville Avenue.

Ham sandwiches, PB&J, hot dogs and cheese sandwiches were on the menu.

Cummings’ mother, Cassy, helped load packaged sandwiches into plastic bags and dropped off the fruits of the day’s work at the fridges. She scurried around reloading supplies and helping the newcomers.

“Any combination works,” she said of the sandwiches. “We don’t discriminate between types.” 

The sandwiches are dropped off on Thursday and eaten up by Monday, Cummings said, which is both “exciting and heartbreaking.”

Cummings started making sandwiches for the fridge at Centenary about a year ago. His fellow members of the Middle Georgia Democratic Socialists of America joined his efforts about six months ago.

The sandwich-making team began to grow after Cummings and members of the Middle Georgia DSA began advertising the campaign on Reddit. 

The group posts pictures of their sandwich stacks every time they beat their personal record — the group’s highest sandwich sum was 392, as of this week — and Cummings hits his signature pointing stance in every photo. 

One by one, week by week, people started joining Cummings in his meetings. Cummings said they’ve received lots of positive support from eager volunteers and donors.

Cummings said he sees it not just as a way to help out, but also as a way for him to socialize and regularly meet with friends. He calls himself the “worst sandwich-maker” of the bunch because of his propensity to talk rather than spread peanut butter. 

“It really helps for a lot of my friends who have just felt disenfranchised, with just the world in general,” he said. “I’ll have people be like ‘oh, I just feel like we can’t do anything.’ Well we just fed 400 people last week, I think you can do something.”

Julie Colton, co-chair of the Middle Georgia DSA, was the first to join Cummings on his sandwich-making sessions. She said it’s been an “easy, low-risk” way to become active in the community.

While the DSA does not currently accept cash donations, the sandwich makers will happily accept any bread, meat, cheese or helping hands.

“I’m pleased by how excited people are for a basic level of community support,” Colton said.

Colton added that the group hopes to expand the hours and number of days they make sandwiches. Cummings said the next step will be to increase the number of partners and fridges they deliver to. 

“Even though we’re a political organization doing this, to us this is a nonpartisan issue,” Cummings said. “There are objectively people who need to be fed in Macon and across Middle Georgia.”

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story noted the Middle Georgia Democratic Socialists of America as the Middle Georgia Democratic Socialists Association.