MACON, Ga. — The Middle Georgia Community Food Bank says about 100,000 people in Central Georgia are in need.
They said more than 38,000 children are food insecure, too. In their annual update, CEO Kathy McCollum said that the need had increased by 25%.
That's why they expanded and renovated their food bank building. On Thursday, they held a ribbon cutting to celebrate their new building that's ready to serve more people. The new addition to the building created more room for more staff and volunteers.
"We're really excited to have space that we could be more effective in the work that we've done for 43 years," McCollum said.
She said their old building was holding them back from helping more people.
"The office area was very small. We had staff people literally sharing spaces," McCollum said. "We had offices in the corner of our conference room. We didn't have the staff that we needed to work in the communities across our 24 county area."
She said one in seven of the people in the counties they serve is considered food insecure.
"You think about people who are trying to go to school and learn, who are trying to go to work," McCollum said. "If they don't have food, good nutritious food at their home, it's really difficult for other parts of their life to work well."
Now, thanks to their packing area tripling in size, they can get more hands-on help from volunteers like Shealeigh Golden, to keep up with demand.
"Previously when volunteers would come, they would still enjoyed the experience but it was a little less comfortable, maybe a little crowded," Golden said. "And we couldn't send as many volunteers out."
Golden is a site coordinator at Geico, and helps plan group-volunteer trips four to five times a week.
Volunteers help keep the place going - and now, more volunteers than ever have the space to come help their neighbors.
The expansion includes an additional 4,594 square feet for the lobby and administrative space. They also renovated 3,249 square feet of existing administrative space to house meetings, trainings, and volunteer space.
The expansion was funded by The Georgia Department of Community Affairs who awarded Macon-Bibb County $2,318,898 as a Community Development Block Grant. On top of that, the county matched the fund with $993,814 of its American Rescue Plan funds.