MACON, Ga. — Macon-Bibb County wants to spend up to $4 million to improve and expand the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank. The food bank provides for more than 100,000 Central Georgians who are food insecure.
About a quarter of them are in Macon-Bibb County. Kathy McCollum, the food bank's president and CEO, says last year, they supplied more than 12 million pounds of food, and that's the most ever in a single year.
McCollum says due to the pandemic, the food bank needs more space for volunteers and staff.
Unlike many businesses that died during the pandemic, Loaves & Fishes Ministry survived with just four employees, and now its future is looking bright.
John Sewell, a general service manager for Loaves & Fishes, says, "It came down to just four of us in here because a lot of volunteers stopped coming, and a lot of the employees here were older people, so they couldn't come to work -- they had to work from home."
Executive director Jake Ferro says the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank made it possible for them to stay afloat.
"During the pandemic, it became a little more difficult to get food drives going and so forth, so the community food bank helped supplement during that period of time, but they're always there when we need certain things -- for example, frozen meats and so forth. Community food bank is a great partner. We just call them and they come through for us," said Ferro.
Sewell been helping the homeless for more than 15 years and says during the pandemic, the staff decided to serve hot meals for those in need.
"We served breakfast, lunch, and dinner -- that's really what kept us going. All of our clients kept us open. The drive to know that, 'Hey, these people need your help. These people want you here. They need to eat they need to know somebody cares,'" said Sewell.
Sewell says it's only up from here.
"We serve hundreds of people. I feel like everybody knows who we are now, from different cities, different states. People know who we are. I feel like it's going to become even better and we are going to become even bigger," said Sewell.
The Macon-Bibb County Commission is scheduled to take up the food bank project Tuesday and to vote on awarding the design and construction to Warren and Associates. The county would use American Rescue Plan and block grant money to pay for it.