The Middle Georgia Community Food Bank, headquartered in Macon, GA, offers a mobile food pantry service to counties with no brick-and-mortar food banks. Always looking to expand their reach, a representative from the food bank contacted the Baldwin Country Family Connection Director, Janet Calvin, to discuss introducing the program to the Baldwin community.
Along with Tommy French, a prominent community member, they decided to pilot the program at the Collins P. Lee Community Center in Harrisburg, a small community within Baldwin County with limited access to a grocery store. The location would allow them to set up food distribution channels and utilize the center’s volunteers.
“It was the most amazing thing to watch happen,” said Janet, as the community came together to organize and secure volunteers. “It required manual labor and had a lot of moving parts.”
The group decided to offer the mobile food pantry on the third Wednesday of each month. After each service, more community partners and local businesses signed on to contribute. HealthMPowers is proud to be one of these organizations, providing reusable tote bags for each participant’s food distribution and nutrition education. HealthMPowers role has also expanded to engaging community participants through taste test demonstrations and handing out additional nutrition resources.
