The Statesboro Food Bank pantry will send out its last meal box at the Morgan Way location this Friday. Come Monday morning, the Joe Bill Brannon Pantry will be ready to service the community at 506 Miller St. Statesboro, Georgia.
The usual operating hours for the pantry will continue after the weekend’s move; Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11 am until 3 pm. Office staff will be available every weekday however, accepting deliveries and donations from 9 am until 4 pm.
Georgia Southern Football players, members of the Chasing Freedom Recovery team, and other volunteers are assisting the food bank with the transition by packing meal boxes and helping to move heavy items like coolers and shelving to the new location.
For now, just the pantry services will be operating at the new location, but community members can expect the construction of the multi-purpose building to be complete later this fall. Once finished, the new facility will be a center for community, with thoughtfully designed classrooms, kitchens, a dining hall, offices, and other resources like showers, cots, and laundry machines for times of crisis.
Executive Director Sheila Stewart-Leach informs us that it was not the original plan to open up in phases, but funding based issues have created these circumstances. She says that while from the outside the building looks complete, bathrooms still need appliances, air conditioning still needs to be installed, and the cosmetic touches still need to be applied
Leach says that while more than $1 million of funding was provided by the city and county, the food bank is still “working behind the ball” with their capital investments.
“We’ve been raising capital money, but in the meantime of course, we have to feed people; that’s what we do,” she said.
She described the conundrum as the food bank competing with themselves for donor dollars; as donations for construction increased over the last 18 months, operational donations that aid the nutrition initiatives have decreased by about half.
At the same time, Leach says that the number of community members they are serving has grown enormously. In less than a year, the food bank has increased meals served from about 2,000 to 50,000 per month. This increased demand requires the support of local businesses, organizations and individuals, and you can find more information about supporting the food banks initiatives HERE.
Community members can look forward to a plethora of resources with the completion of the new facility later this fall, thought of by a board and staff members that Leach described as open-minded and compassionate, approaching the operation of the food bank with humanity at the forefront.
Join Grice Connect in celebrating the ribbon cutting of the new pantry at 8am on July 23, 2024 at 506 Miller St., and stay tuned for more updates about the progress of the construction of the rest of the facility.
