Food Lion's Feed the Boro (FTB) presented the 1 millionth meal to a family on Saturday, August 20, 2022 at Statesboro High School. Steven Kendrick a maintenance technician with Ogeechee Technical College was selected as the 1 millionth. Kendrick received a $250 gift card from Food Lion.
"I was really surprised, it feels great, I didn't expect this. I have never won a prize this big before, its great," said Steven Kendrick, the 1 millionth FTB meal recipient. "I think it is great what Feed the Boro is doing for the community, especially with the cost of inflation right now. It has hit me pretty hard right now, putting gas in the tank and the normal day to day life. It gets' increasing more difficult as prices go up. I greatly appreciate it!"
Grice Connect live streamed the presentation. You can watch the full presentation below, in addition to Food Lion's $25,000 check presentation to Feed the Boro.
Food Lion Executives give gifts
Statesboro Food Lion Store Manager Tod Marsh was joined by Food Lion local and corporate leadership in assisting with the food drop this morning. They presented Feed the Boro with a $25,000 check to support the organization. They also personally distributed 400 $10 gift cards to citizens as they came through the lines.
Long lines continued through the morning
Hours before sunrise families were in lines circling SHS waiting to get a weeks supply of food for their families. When the distribution began at 8 AM the lines backed up to Northside Drive East and East Main Street. These lines continued most of the morning.
No more COVID fund impacting families
Mary Jane Crouch, Director of America's Second Harvest Food bank said they are seeing demand increases in all of the counties they serve. This has substantially increased since the COVID funding stopped in June. These included increase EBT funds and free meals for all children's in public schools.
"We cover 21 counties in Coastal Georgia and this month we saw about a 40% increase in food being delivered in the month of July versus June. We feel a lot of this is caused by the extra EBT funding that went on the cards during COVID which stopped the end of June. We know a lot of people are really struggling right now, especially with inflation, gas prices and things like that so we know that is why the increases are happening. We are trying to respond with these types of events to make sure people do have access to food," said Mary Jane Crouch, Director of America's Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia.
Crouch continued, "During COVID all children in public schools received free lunch and breakfast in school. They didn't have to qualify or fill out paperwork. This year everyone gets free breakfast, both most Bulloch school children are having to pay for lunch unless they submit paperwork showing they are eligible for for free meals. A lot of times this is difficult because don't have the proper documentation or parents are working two jobs and can't get to the documentation. Unfortunately often the children live with elderly grandparents who may simply may not be able to complete the documentation to be able to get the free meals. So when the children get to school they don't have anything to eat during the day."
Click here to apply online for free meals. Applications must be completed by September 13, 2022.
Live radio remote
Foundry Broadcasting the local owners of the radio stations provided a remote, live broadcast on their stations during the drop this morning and for the presentation of the 1 millionth meal.
Over 4,000 FREE books distributed
The Bulloch County Literacy Council volunteers participated in the food drop this morning and gave away over 4,000 books to children in the cars waiting in line for food.
Charles Wilson, Superintendent Bulloch County Schools also came out to assist the volunteers with the book distribution and food drop.
"This partnership probably means more than I can express. The great work that Feed the Boro has done just helping out the community. A well fed child is a healthy child which really impacts their ability to learn in school which is a dire issue now more than ever. We are very blessed and thankful for the partnerships and great work all of this community is doing, Feed the Boro especially," said Superintendent Charles Wilson.
"We have our literacy bus. We have a literacy initiative in this community starting exposing children to books at birth so by the time they get to kindergarten they are well prepared for learning. So again this is a great partnership all the way around and we really appreciate all Feed the Boro is doing."
Volunteers make a difference
Hundreds of volunteers representing organizations throughout the community have volunteered with the food drops. This month the GS ROTC program and GS Serve the Boro student organization provided volunteers.
One group that has helped with every food drop are the Damascus Men. They show up early and are there till the end to do the heavy lifting and make sure the community is fed.
To learn more about getting involved with Feed the Boro by volunteering or contributing go to their website at www.FeedtheBoro.com.
