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Macon woman hands out 200 free lunches a day for kids home from school

Melonie Finch rotates through different parts of Macon-Bibb to hand out the meals.

MACON, Ga. — When Bibb County Schools announced they would be closing during the COVID-19 pandemic, Melonie Finch says she hated knowing that would leave some kids without enough food for the day.

She went out and bought enough food to make roughly 140 sack lunches and handed them out during lunchtime outside of Macon businesses.

Finch created a group called "It Takes a Village," and when she posted about her new mission on Facebook, she says people started offering to volunteer and donate.

"Now I'm up to at least 200 meals a day," she said.

Finch says she's been rotating through different parts of Macon each day to hand out the meals.

During one of her recent stops, Finch says she met a mother and her two young children who had been living out of their car.

"I knew I had to do something," she said.

Finch and her fiance paid for the family to stay in a hotel for the night.

As soon as Finch put out a call on Facebook, she says even more people stepped in to help. She says the family now has a room for a week with a stocked fridge and new clothes for the children.

"She was so relieved," Finch said. "You could just see her facial expressions, the tension, the stress was automatically relieved."

Finch says she's now working with others to help the family find a permanent place to live.

She says she will also continue making and handing out lunches for kids during the COVID-19 outbreak.

"It really does take a village," she said.

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