Groups share food boxes with the community

Kevin C. Hall |, The Moultrie Observer, Ga.
·2 min read

Apr. 13—MOULTRIE, Ga. — Two groups offered free boxes of food to local residents under the USDA Farmers to Families program on Saturday.

Fifty volunteers from the United Way of Colquitt County, the Rotary Club of Moultrie, Trinity Baptist, Publix, Moultrie Police Department, Moultrie Fire Department, Southern Powder Coating, American Red Cross and UGA Archway Partnership manned the main site at Trinity Baptist Church, according to Caroline Horne, executive director of the United Way of Colquitt County.

Horne said 1,100 boxes of food were distributed there, along with 500 face masks. The drive-through served 312 vehicles, and donors gave $5 to Rotary to help with its polio vaccine support and $20 to Trinity Baptist Church.

Meanwhile, two churches and Colquitt Regional Medical Center combined to give away boxes of food and COVID vaccinations at the same time.

Greater Believers Worship Center on Northside Drive has been hosting food distributions every two weeks for about six months, Pastor Benjie Nobles estimated. Open Door Christian Church joined the effort a month or two later.

Generally, the church gets a portion of a distribution provided to Mitchell County pastor Roger Spicer, Nobles said, but on Saturday it received the food boxes from the group at Trinity Baptist. In either case, Greater Believers receives about 200 boxes of vegetables, fruit, milk and cooked meat and gives them away on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month.

The boxes are part of the US Department of Agriculture Farmers to Families distribution program, through which the USDA buys agricultural products from farmers and gives them away to charities for distribution to needy people. It was a response to the dramatic loss of market the farmers experienced when restaurants, hotels and schools closed in the early days of the coronavirus.

In addition to the pick-up at Greater Believers, volunteers carried food out into the community. Sadie Mitchell, a small woman in a big Dodge truck, picked up a half-dozen boxes or more at a time to deliver to people she knew in Northwest Moultrie who needed food. Frankie Cadenhead, pastor of Open Door Christian Church, said other volunteers were taking food boxes to Norman Park.

The hospital provided COVID vaccinations by appointment at Greater Believers Worship Center on Saturday. Colquitt Regional Marketing Director Emily Watson said 21 shots were dispensed in the effort, which was scheduled 10:30 a.m. to noon.

Nobles said he and his wife were among them.

"It's good that Colquitt Regional is willing to come into the community," Nobles said. "... Two churches and a hospital coming together to help the community get over this."

Nobles said his church held services on social media when the pandemic started, but it's been open for in-person services about 90 days now. They observe social distancing and wear masks, and congregants check their temperature when they come in.