47,000 receive food aid in Columbus area. How is ‘chronic hunger’ still a major problem?

“God is great and God is good,

And we thank Him for our food.

By His hand we must be fed,

Give us Lord, our daily bread.

Amen.”

It’s that traditional, but simple prayer, titled “Child’s Grace,” that takes place before every Kids Café meal at Open Door Community House on Second Avenue in Columbus.

And it was recited once again — in a soft, sweet tone and heads bowed — on a recent weekday, with several dozen children gathered shortly after school to receive help with their homework, take part in physical activities and receive nourishment in the form of a hot plate of green beans and macaroni and cheese before their parents would pick them up and head home. The mood was happy one, with smiles all around.

Mother Nakesha McCrary, 36, who was at what is called Kids Café, a program made possible by the Columbus-based food bank, Feeding the Valley, said she is so appreciative of the support that comes through the tasty food and activities received by her young children, Jamichael, 8, Michaela, 6, and DaMarcus, 7.

“It’s a big help to me because when the kids go to school they eat lunch around 11, and when they get out of the school they still want a snack. So this holds them until I can get home and get them settled and fix a meal,” she said of Kids Café, which also has a summer program that her children enjoy. “They love to come back every year.”

Such efforts to stem the tide of hunger in Columbus and surrounding areas is never ending, with Feeding the Valley now marking its 35th anniversary and having grown to the point at which it is now helping put food in the stomachs of about 47,000 people in 14 counties.

That amounts to about 8.7 million pounds of dry goods, meat, produce and dairy items distributed to people of all ages and race annually. And that number is up from 1.7 million pounds just eight years ago, before the organization relocated to a brand new warehouse and office on Flat Rock Road in the Midland area of Columbus.

“The demand has always been there. It’s us being able to meet the demand. It’s getting our hands on more and more food,” said Frank Sheppard, president and chief executive officer of Feeding the Valley, which serves a large swath of Georgia from Troup County north of Columbus to the sparsely populated, but impoverished Clay County and Randolph County area to the south, where 33 percent of residents are considered “chronically hungry.”

One in six adults, one in five children are ‘chronically hungry’

In the Columbus metro area, which includes Russell County in Alabama, one in six adults are classified as chronically hungry, while one in five children are at that level of need for basic nourishment, said Sheppard, whose annual cash budget of $1.8 million comes from federal and state funding, grants, unsolicited donations and direct mail fundraising.

The food bank also receives support from the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley, while its suppliers include local food retailers such as Publix, Winn-Dixie, Walmart and Sam’s Club. In all, about 4 million pounds of food, valued at $6 million, are donated each year by those outlets and distributed from Feeding the Valley’s warehouse to various agency partners such as Open Door Community House and Uptown Outreach Ministries.

Marlon Sharpe, director of community ministries at Open Door, confided that there is a severe need for all that is being done to feed residents throughout the area. He said the majority of families that his organization serves make $10,000 or less per year, which include income, child support and any food stamps they might receive.

“Some of our families have two children, and some have six or seven kids. And they make only $10,000,” said Sharpe, noting that his organization also distributes food to those families, which amounts to 40 pounds per household monthly. “So we’re making sure food is in the home for every child. But without Feeding the Valley, I know a lot of kids would go hungry.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services publishes poverty guidelines each January. In 2018, the poverty level for a family of four in the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia is a household income of $25,100 per year. For a family of six, it rises to $33,740.

In the Columbus metro area, the median household income in 2016, the latest Census survey numbers available, was $43,412. That’s $10,417 lower than the Georgia median household income of $53,599 and $14,205 less than the $57,617 in the U.S. as a whole.

However, Sheppard said the need often goes beyond those basic, stark figures. He said there are people in Columbus and communities elsewhere who may surpass the poverty level in terms of overall income, but not quality for government assistance.

‘They’re still needy. We call them the working poor’

“Yet they’re still needy. We call them the working poor,” he said. “A husband and wife who both work minimum wage jobs at or close to full time are above the poverty level and thus do not qualify (for government programs). But you know they’re still going to struggle. They’re one medical bill or one car repair away from potentially needing help to feed their families.”

The problem was exacerbated during the Great Recession of 2007-2009 when people lost their jobs, some having to accept unemployment assistance for a long period of time. Or perhaps they found work, but it paid nowhere near what they had been making with their previous employer, which is considered “underemployed.”

Sheppard said while the income goes away or is reduced drastically, the bills people often have to pay to maintain their lives do not. A job loss or disability or some other serious obstacle in their life can make it troubling to pay the electricity bill or the rent or mortgage.

“Food is still a basic need and that’s where we can come in and help,” he said. “Of course, nourishment is needed for folks to regain their health or for kids to continue to go to school and learn. So that’s what we’re here for.”

Columbus resident Joyce Maddox is one of those who unexpectedly found herself having to reach out for help to raise her three grandchildren. An interpreter for the hearing impaired, now in her 50s and single, she had worked at Columbus Technical College for 13 years until being hired by the Muscogee County School District in 2006. Eight years later, she was laid off.

“I remember being young and going, ‘I will never shop at Goodwill. I will never go to a thrift store.’ Well, I’ve eaten those words many a time,” she said. “But now I love shopping at thrift stores because it’s part of the thing that I do to help sustain us. It’s something I enjoy. I’ll get junk and I’ll remake it. I have a little side hustle. I repurpose it and resell it and that kind of helps keep us going.”

She has also turned to Feeding the Valley and Uptown Outreach Ministries at times to help put food on the table for her teenage grandchildren, Cordell, Caitlyn and Corrina. It’s often basic food items they receive, such as bread, canned goods, frozen items and meats, but occasionally there are nice extras like coffee, milk, butter and ice cream. The family also volunteers with the food organizations when they can.

Maddox said the experience has humbled her profoundly, taking the edge off of her I-can-do-this-myself attitude while also instilling in her a desire to be grateful for what she is receiving in her time of need. She urges others, as hard as it can seem at times, to not be too proud to accept a helping hand during tough times.

‘God will knock you off of that big ol’ pedestal’

“That’s one of the things that I’m trying to instill in my grandchildren,” she said. “God will knock you off of that big ol’ pedestal that you put yourself on. He has a way of humbling you and He’s done that to me. So I’ve learned to say thank you instead of no, no, no, no … I’ve just learned to be grateful.”

Maddox said she also has developed a calling to help others she runs across who may be down on their luck or stretched too thin financially to make ends meet all the way. She knows a young “sweet couple” who have five small children and one on the way, all of the kids under age 6, but the family has had hard times.

“When I have extra, I try to help them,” she said. “And there’s a couple in church that has six kids. He’s military, but when you have six kids and one income, that money doesn’t always go very far. So if I can help, I do.”

The network of “partners” that Feeding the Valley relies on to get the word out about its food assistance and help get it distributed includes Raven Hart, the local site coordinator of a program called Communities in Schools of Georgia, which currently is inside Dawson Elementary and Lonnie Jackson Elementary schools. The Atlanta-based and government-funded intervention program is now in its second year at the schools.

“Basically we come in and target issues like attendance, social and emotional behavior and grades,” she said. “But once you get in there and do the research it comes from things like this — kids don’t have food. If they’re here acting up, sometimes they’re acting up because they’re hungry, so they can’t learn, they can’t concentrate.”

Specifically, Hart, who has been a behavioral specialist in Troup County’s school system and taught preschool for a decade, said the program she shepherds in Columbus feeds at least 100 kids a week. She distributes cold breakfast foods such as cereal, cereal bars, fruit and milk for children who might have arrived too late for the school’s hot breakfast offering, but still sorely need something in their stomachs to function properly while studying. On Fridays, food recipients are given “home packs” that help cover the weekend, to include canned goods, juice and milk.

“If they come in late and haven’t eaten, (school staff) don’t allow them to go to class. They send them to me so that I can provide something for breakfast because it’s hard for them to concentrate and stay focused,” said Hart, who also develops a connection with the parents of the children she assists to learn how things are going at home, including if there are snacks available between school and dinnertime.

‘Some people are intimidated by having to be helped’

“Honestly, I think it’s going to take some time for some people,” she said. “Some people are intimidated by having to be helped, so to speak. I think once they understand it is just for help and not for us to pry into their personal lives … I think people come around and say: Hey, I need help as well.”

Hart acknowledged that she was “shocked” at what she found in Columbus in terms of the critical need for helping the chronically hungry. She simply didn’t know the extent of the poverty levels in Muscogee County until she took the job, traveling each day from her home in LaGrange, Ga.

But she also knows she’s making an impact. She can see it in the eyes of the children as they smile and engage with her, and reports she receives back from teachers indicate the program is helping them focus better on their studies, rather than being dazed and having their minds wander from lack of food.

“It makes me happy to just know that I did something — that one day — to help them get through that day, because you don’t even know if the next day is promised for these kids because of the environment” they are in, she said. “To know that I helped them get through that one day is a reward for me, and it pushes me to the next day. I wake up every morning and say: What do I have to do for these kids today, God? What route do I need to take? I have to do research. I have to do home visits. I have to humble myself and go into some places (poor areas of the city) that I’m not with comfortable sometimes. But that’s the only we’re going to find the need.”

It’s a similar approach which also helps drive Haley Ramey, who oversees resident services at the Phenix City Housing Authority. She now is attempting in increase assistance and participation in the Feeding the Valley food outreach on a couple of levels.

That includes bringing a Kids Café similar to the one at Open Door Community House to L.P. Stough Homes in Phenix City, where 30 children under age 18 are now receiving not only after-school snacks, but also hot meals Monday through Thursday after they get off the school bus.

She has also launched an effort with Feeding the Valley to bring food to senior residents at H.L. Blake Homes, a 76-unit complex, with distribution taking place every third Monday of each month.

“We get boxes ready and just make rounds all through the neighborhood and give each of our residents a box of food, which has two frozen meats, usually three different types of produce bags, a bread and a bakery item,” said Ramey, who concedes it also is meant to be somewhat of a social outreach initiative for aging residents who might simply be lonesome and feel forgotten by society.

“I know it’s definitely helping. Everyone looks forward to it, and it’s a good amount of food,” she said. “Everyone usually lives on their own. They’re widowed and it’s hard for them to get to the grocery store on their own. So it helps even in that capacity … It’s just really so awesome and it’s really helping meet a need and we’ve gotten nothing but great feedback. I look forward to it. I’m just like everybody’s granddaughter over there and they give me a big hug and are just so appreciative. That’s what it’s all about.”

Goal is to meet all ‘chronic hunger’ need in 10 years

As for the future, Sheppard, who has been at the helm of Feeding the Valley for four years and was on its board nearly nine years prior to that, unfortunately doesn’t see the need for the organization’s services diminishing. In fact, he’s preparing for growth.

That’s the reason the organization invested $3.5 million in the new 31,000-square-foot facility on Flat Rock Road, opening it in early 2017. The extra space, which includes large cold and frozen storage areas, is critical to getting a handle on every morsel of chronic hunger in the coverage area, he said.

“Statistically, we have 83,000 people that are called food insecure, or need food assistance,” Sheppard said. “Statistically, we are meeting the needs of about 47,000 of them. So we’re only a little over halfway there now, distributing 8.7 million pounds. You would say we need to get to 16 million or 17 million pounds of food distribution to meet the needs of every adult, child and senior.”

What will that take? Feeding the Valley will need to add staffing — it now has 19 full-time and 8 part-time employees — while its vital base of volunteers that already contributes a combined 24,000 hours of help yearly will likely need to grow as well. A larger fleet of distribution vehicles and trucks also will be required to fulfill the organization’s strategic goal of getting food into the hands and mouths of every person who needs it within 10 years.

As it stands, Sheppard’s operation feeds about 1,600 kids a hot meal each day, while also sending them home with backpacks full of food each Friday. There’s also the mobile pantry program for individuals who can’t easily get to a source of food because they have a disability or are aging and can’t leave the home often. Volunteers pack about 8,000 boxes with food each month at the distribution center and take them to 41 locations in the coverage area to be passed out. There also are occasional pop-up markets.

A third element of the food bank’s operation is its relationship with partner agencies such as Open Door, Uptown Outreach, Easter Seals, the Boys & Girls Club, and churches themselves. Those groups and organizations purchase food from Feeding the Valley, paying a very small maintenance fee to defray transportation and operating costs. They then take it back to their locations to give the basic nourishment items to individuals and families who need it.

Sheppard also said part of the plan for Feeding the Valley and others in the community is to bring the chronic hunger issue to the forefront of public awareness. That will help spread the word to those who can use help, but also to those who can offer it through volunteer work or donations to the organization.

‘This is not an undeveloped third-world country’

The food bank leader said he speaks often to groups about Feeding the Valley and the problem it is working hard to tackle. And too often, he said, Columbus-area residents simply don’t know that hunger is that big of an issue here or elsewhere.

“I see jaws drop when I mention the level of food insecurity and poverty that we have in our community,” Sheppard said. “This is 21st-century America. This is not an undeveloped third-world country. This is right here at home. Food banking is one of those businesses that operates pretty much behind the scenes unless you have the need for the services or have been civic-minded enough to volunteer.”

Feeding the Valley advises those people who feel they need food assistance to get in contact with the food bank so it can connect them with the proper partner agency or distribution point nearest to where they live. To do so, visit Feeding the Valley at 6744 Flat Rock Road in Columbus, or call 706-561-4755. Its website is https://feedingthevalley.org/.

This story was originally published October 15, 2018 at 10:21 AM.