Huge food distribution in Macon planned with increased demand due to coronavirus pandemic

With a record-numbers of Middle Georgia residents unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic, another massive food distribution is planned to help ease the burden and provide food for those needing a hand up.

The food distribution starts at 11 a.m. Saturday at five Macon churches and ends when all the food is gone. The effort is a partnership among the churches, the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank and the Central Georgia COVID-19 Response & Recovery Fund.

In all, at least 60,000 meals are expected to be given away through the effort, said Jeff Battcher, board president for the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank.

The nonprofit and the food pantries it helps support in its 24-counties continue to see an increased demand due largely to lost jobs from the coronaviurs pandemic, Battcher said.

As a result, the Middle Georgia Food Bank expects to distribute at least 12 million meals this year, up 3.3 million meals from 8.7 million meals distributed through its 24-counties in 2019, Battcher said.

“It’s people out of work, No. 1, and then those people, go to a grocery store and see that there’s not enough food or you’re limited to only one type of meat and many of them are just very scared,” Battcher said of the increased demand.

“And we’re seeing people we’ve never seen at our food distributions — a lot more younger people than we’ve ever seen before and it’s just a combination of all of the things that are going on,” he said.

With high poverty rates within its service area, the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank has always experienced people in need of food, Battcher said.

“You combine an extremely high poverty rate already. You put on top that unemployment. Then you put on top of that seniors who are scared to go out. Then you put on top of that the schools closing down and you’ve got four combination of things that just cause food insecurity to be a significant part of people’s lives,” Battcher said.

Saturday, about 500 boxes of a five-day supply of food are expected to be given out at each of the five distribution locations.

Volunteers, primarily from the churches, are expected to practice social distancing.

Here are the churches and distribution sites:

▪ Bibb Mount Zion Baptist Church: 3 Bibb Mount Zion Baptist Church, 268 Avondale Mill Road

▪ World Changers Church: World Changers Church, 630 Wimbish Road

▪ Community Church of God: Community Church of God, 5555 Bethesda Ave.

▪ The Healing Experience Ministries: Central High School, 2155 Napier Ave.

▪ A Kingdom Life; Shurlington Plaza, 1701 Shurling Drive

Battcher said he hopes that the food bank will be able to pack some more food in the trucks than planned.

“We’ve had hundreds of cars at every location that were still in line,” Battcher said. “So we gave out all the food we had and still had people in line. … We’re going to try to get some more food out so we can get everybody covered.”

Volunteers are still needed for the event. To volunteer, visit https://www.unitedwaycg.org/volunteerunited.

To donate to the Central Georgia COVID-19 Response & Recovery Fund, go to https://www.unitedwaycg.org/covid19donate.

This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 5:00 AM.