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Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009

Middle Georgia agencies lend a hand to provide holiday meals

Susie Gilbert can’t get around like she used to, so getting a grocery sack with a cooked ham, canned yams and walnuts inside will come in handy for Thanksgiving.

About 30 senior citizens, including Gilbert, were handed a bag of groceries Tuesday at the Macon-Bibb County Senior Center. Many of the men and women who frequent the center are on fixed incomes and need the help.

“It’s a great gift,” the 72-year-old Gilbert said, pulling out a cupcake with smudged icing. “When I get home, I’ll spread it all out on the table.”

The center’s manager, Renee Johnson, said that with the hard times, everyone’s budget is running thin, especially at the center, where they’ve had to cut back on transportation and fear that funding could run out by March. Johnson said she used $75 of her own money to cook a Thanksgiving brunch of bacon, eggs and grits Tuesday afternoon for the group.

“Anything they can get to subsidize helps,” Johnson said.

Other area agencies that help the needy are reporting record or near-record levels of demand.

Tuesday, a line for Macon Outreach’s food pantry started about 8:30 a.m., four hours before the doors normally open. Even as demand increases, donations are dropping off, said Allison Gatliff, the associate director. She hopes more canned food, socks and men’s shoes will be donated.

The Middle Georgia Community Food Bank, which serves more than 200 food pantries, is delivering about 19 percent more food than it was just last year.

Ronald Raleigh, the director, compares the agency’s ability to cope with high demand to his times in Vietnamese sampans 40 years ago. Loaded with soldiers, supplies and even livestock, the boats would be barely above the water. Even little ripples could force the boat to take on water.

Raleigh is hoping he has no ripples this year.

“In terms of local needs, this will definitely be a record,” said Raleigh, whose agency already has distributed about 5.4 million pounds of food.

At the Macon Rescue Mission, Executive Director Jeffrey Nicklas Sr. can measure need in diapers. He’s given away 7,400 more diapers than he did through the same time last year, an increase of about 65 percent. In all of last year, the mission gave away 2,058 boxes of food. So far this year, the agency has given away 3,893, or almost double the rate.

The mission expects to serve about 400 Thanksgiving meals this year, up a few dozen. Nicklas worries about what’s beyond, when supplies of food, diapers and hygiene items get lower.

“We are OK on Thanksgiving, but Christmas is another story,” he said.

CHILDREN ARE HELPING

Sometimes the help comes from the area’s youngest. Tuesday’s benefit at the Senior Center was aided by the Mentors Project of Bibb County, which pairs a mentor with Bibb County’s middle and high school students at risk of not graduating. The group gathered food to fill about 75 bags of groceries.

“I like helping people a lot,” said Victor Balleza, a Rutland Middle School seventh-grader who participated. “People say karma is real. I believe it.”

Several other Middle Georgia organizations are also giving food or hosting Thanksgiving meals for seniors and the needy this holiday season.

n A community effort incorporating Warner Robins-area churches and businesses is expected to bring Thanksgiving dinner — and all the fixings — to about 1,200 people at the Houston Mall, said the Rev. John H. Thomas, pastor of New Song Missionary Baptist Church. The supper is too big for any other building. The first communitywide dinner, last year, served about 500.

n “We will serve at least 300 on Thanksgiving Day,” said Maj. Fred Thornhill, the Middle Georgia area commander for the Salvation Army. “We have a number of folks that need a place to go and get a meal and a lot of families who are having a tough year. This helps them with some of the pain and pressure.”

He plans to fry turkeys Thursday morning to serve with dressing, ham and vegetables for those in need, from noon to 1:30 p.m., at the Salvation Army kitchen, 1955 Broadway in Macon.

n In Macon, members of the Downtown Rotary Club delivered 106 Thanksgiving dinners to families in need Saturday. The deliveries included turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, green beans and desserts.

n Thirty-one families in Peach and Houston counties received Thanksgiving dinners from Fort Valley State University and Piccadilly Cafeteria in Warner Robins on Tuesday.

Each one received a turkey or ham, cornbread dressing, vegetables, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, dinner rolls and a sweet potato pie.

Employees at Fort Valley State donated more than $1,500 to provide the meals to the families from a list provided by the Division of Family and Children Services.

“Because of the economic downturn right now, we have a lot of people hurting with lost jobs. A lot of people don’t have the resources they once had,” said Alecia Livatt, a development associate at the university who coordinated the event. “Our small part is to make sure we give them a Thanksgiving dinner they’re used to.”

Staff writer Andrea Castillo also contributed to this report.

To contact writer Julie Hubbard, call 744-4331.

To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.