Georgia Mountain Food Bank, headquartered in Gainesville, is one of 33 nonprofits across the state to receive grant money from Gov. Kemp. The food bank will get $2,809,117 to address food insecurity and offset economic hardships caused by the pandemic.
Georgia Mountain Food Bank executive director Kay Blackstock said the pandemic caused a decrease in donations. This was critical, as 64 food pantry partners rely on donations from Georgia Mountain Food Bank for 50 to 60 percent of groceries.
“We had a supply chain problem with most of our food coming from the retail market [and] retail donors,” Blackstock said. “The retail stores were wiped out with people panic shopping. Our donations were cut to about two-thirds, when we had more people than ever knocking at our door that needed food assistance.”
The food bank serves Dawson, Forsyth, Hall, Lumpkin and Union counties. It is the smallest food bank that is a part of the Feeding America network in Georgia.
Blackstock said the goal is to use the grant money to increase Georgia Mountain Food Bank’s distributions by 15 percent by the end of 2024.
“That's a huge increase for a small food bank, and we knew that it would take truckloads of food for us to be able to do that,” Blackstock said.
The funding will cover reimbursements from March 2021 and will extend to December 2024.
The nonprofit organization purchases shelf-stable food and fresh produce. Transportation makes up the bulk of fresh food expenses, which has increased due to inflation.
Rising prices associated with inflation, from food to transportation, have caused more people to seek assistance from the Georgia Mountain Food Bank.
“We had more and more people coming and needing assistance,” Blackstock said. “We have the same thing now, where prices are so high people can afford their groceries. They're having to turn to the charitable Food Bank Network.”
Blackstock said that much of Georgia Mountain Food Bank’s territory is rural, which can make it challenging to distribute food.
However, Georgia Mountain Food Bank’s facility will receive an expansion soon, thanks to another grant. This 75 percent grant is provided by Hall County, with the Georgia Mountain Food Bank matching 25 percent.
“That'll give us some increased capacity,” Blackstone said. “And we do have some other rollouts that are going to be happening within the next 36 months that are going to help us come a lot closer to the people that we need to get to.”
