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Hosea Helps feeds 1,000 families for MLK Day celebration

The event provided families with personal protective equipment, fresh produce, food for the next two weeks, blankets and hand warmers among other things.

ATLANTA — Non-profit Hosea Helps fed more than 1,000 families with a socially-distant, drive-thru event at the Georgia World Congress Center on Monday.

The event, called Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless, provided families with personal protective equipment, fresh produce, food for the next two weeks, blankets, hand warmers, other essential items. 

CEO of Hosea Helps, Elisabeth Omilami said the drive-thru and walk-up event cost $150,000 to put together and was made possible by different community members and local companies.

"It's a public-private partnership between government, corporations, the church and the non-profit community," said Omilami.

She said every donation makes a difference and helped make the event happen, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the human rights activist, as of last March, requests for rent assistance from Hosea Helps have gone up 400 percent and requests for emergency food have gone up 300 percent.

"I know for a fact that 1,000 families will not be evicted," Omilami stated. " One thousand families will not be hungry, 1,000 families will have hand sanitizer, gloves and masks that they need to fight off this pandemic."

"One thousand families more importantly will know that someone cares about them. They're not alone. They're not isolated," Omilami added.

That's why Hosea Helps has been giving away food and checks to landlords, to keep people from being evicted, every week.

"Hosea celebrates Martin Luther King through action and through service. We're just so amazed that we were able to do it even in the midst of COVID. It's been very much a struggle for us and other non-profits," she added.

Some of the companies and organizations that helped make this event happen include Delta Airlines, the Arthur Blank Family Foundation, the Georgia World Congress and Coca Cola.

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