ATLANTA — Two leading hunger relief organizations in the Atlanta area are looking to make use of idle corporate kitchens, and in the process deliver 500,000 meals by the end of the summer to those who are food insecure.
Andrea Jaron, the executive director of one of the organizations, Second Helpings Atlanta, says her non-profit's partnership with the Atlanta Community Food Bank has already yielded nearly 200,000 meals.
"There's been incredible enthusiasm around it, the Atlanta corporate community is all about coming together and helping people," she said. "And so it's really been one conversation after the next of saying, 'How can we help?'"
It's fairly simple in how it works: Right now many of the area's biggest corporate offices have few, if any, employees regularly coming in to work. The kitchens at these corporate cafeterias have capacity, but no one to serve.
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This is where Second Helpings and the Atlanta Community Food Bank step in. Some corporate partners allowing use of their space include Chick-fil-A, Mercedes-Benz USA and State Farm Arena.
Jaron said the program has both helped people who work in the kitchens of corporate offices get back on the job from furloughs and bring food to those most in need.
"Second Helpings utilizes corporate kitchens in our food rescue process, so before the whole pandemic began and we started with the meal preparation, we always rescued food - and we rescued food from various corporate entities, we rescued food from the stadiums," she explained. "And so we already have those relationships. The Food Bank also has those relationships, and so it was really coming together and talking to these leaders and saying, 'Would you consider helping to fund opening up your kitchens so that we can create these meals?'"
The Food Bank, she said has reported a 30-40 percent increase of people requesting food assistance during the pandemic. And the community agencies Second Helpings regularly brings food to are reporting anywhere from 25-125 percent increases in need.
"We are bringing on additional corporate partners and kitchens every single week," Jaron said. "And so we're continuing to bring on more and more partners and we're trying to get the word out so that we can reach that 500,000 meal goal."
She said right now the program is distributing to partner agencies in Atlanta, Fulton County, DeKalb County, Cobb County and some in Gwinnett County. They're looking to expand into Clayton County.
One of their newest community partners where they'll distribute meals, she said, is Boys & Girls Club of Metro Atlanta, which will have seven locations for meal distribution.
The meals are sometimes individually packaged and other times served pan-style that can feed a family of four - casseroles, grilled chickens, vegetables, high quality stuff.
To expand the program to full capacity, Jaron said it's just a matter of bringing on more corporate partners who can open up kitchens (they look for a minimum commitment of 2,000 meals for two weeks) and securing more funding.
"The only limitation we have in getting these meals out is really around funding. We can do the work, we can get the food out to people, we just need the funds in order to make it happen," she said.
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