Every Friday, our Food Pantry volunteers pick up a delivery from the Georgia Mountain Food Bank. These deliveries are picked up in rotation by one of the various churches that sponsor the Pantry. Deliveries vary in size but typically consist of 2 or 3 pallets of food which takes a couple of vehicles to pick up.
Once the food is picked up, it is brought to the Pantry and a small team of people work for about three hours to get the food unpacked, rotated and stocked. Much of this food will go directly onto the shelves for clients to take immediately and some of it will go into the basement to be brought up during the week as needed.
Every Tuesday, Dollar General donates mostly refrigerated items for our clients. If you’ve seen milk, juice, coldcuts, yogurt and other refrigerated items, they very likely came from Dollar General.
Fresh produce is delivered several times a week by various suppliers and we never know what’s coming until it arrives! We’ve had potatoes, pineapples, bananas, lettuce, tomatoes, mangoes - whatever is in season - and it’s always a surprise.
Finally, donations from individuals and items colllected by churches make up a significant portion of the food you see on our shelves as well.