There are many people in Middle Georgia who have paying jobs, but still don’t make enough money to buy groceries and pay for other bills on time.
“When people don’t have the food, I know that feeling,” says Maureen Mingo, a client and volunteer with Loaves and Fishes ministry in Macon. “I had a whole lot of thoughts. I was ready to give up on everything.”
“So many people hit bumps in the road. That’s something we tend to forget,” says Judy Sexton, the Director of Day Services at Loaves and Fishes. “We have the stereotype of homeless, somebody who doesn’t have a job, but there are so many people who are trying as best they can to make it with jobs. They may be on a disability income, or senior citizens that have to make the decisions between food and medicines.”
Loaves and Fishes is now offering free grocery pick up. Mingo says without it, she and her husband would not have had food to eat.
“We probably would have been starving,” says Mingo.
It’s a situation not exclusive to Mingo. “The need level is high,” says Sexton. “We are a poor county. We have so many people who work just for minimum wage or just above it.”