Around the Atlanta area, people of faith are keeping food banks stocked during a time of Thanksgiving that’s become a perpetual time of need.
Along with the articles of clothing found at the Community Action Center’s thrift store in Sandy Springs, people in need can find worshipers working in the food pantry as they obey articles of their faith.
On most days there are lines of people waiting for packages of food that will see them through for a while.
Lee Schwieger and his wife Helen Johnson, two Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church members, volunteer at the action center. Holy Innocents’ is one of 28 local churches in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody that stock the center’s pantries with food. Johnson works the window while Schwieger takes donations and sorts them.
“I think we are called by our faith to serve others,” Johnson said. “Someone said once, ‘You may be the only gospel your neighbor ever reads.’”
Gena Rothermel, a Sandy Springs resident and member of Church of Jesus Our Shepherd in Gwinnett County, also volunteers at the action center.
“This is God’s work,” she said. “Whether you’re in a church or not, God’s work is waiting here.”
Guenther Hecht, a member of Temple Sinai synagogue in Sandy Springs and founder of its Second Helpings program, works to collect leftover food from restaurants, supermarkets and caterers, and delivers it to 15 different agencies around Atlanta, including the Community Action Center.
Recently, the program dedicated a donated refrigerator truck that will help it move the 40,000 to 50,000 pounds of food it collects a month.
“Part of the faith is, something called tikkun olam, which means, ‘heal the world,’ and the Jewish faith considers it very important to help others, to be charitable, to try to see what you can do to help other people,” Hecht said, quoting the proverb, “He who can save one person can save the world.”
At the Buckhead Christian Ministry in Buckhead, the mission is founded on Matthew 25 which refers to “the least of these.”
“(It says) we would feed the least of these and we believe that any of us can be the least of these at any given time,” said Dudley Franklin, Buckhead Christian Ministry’s development director. “So it’s a community effort to help those who are struggling. We serve people of any faith and there’s no requirement for us to have them read something or proselytize to them.”
Buckhead Christian Ministry is affiliated with 30 different churches in the Buckhead area.
Dunwoody United Methodist is one of the churches affiliated with the Sandy Springs-based CAC. Rev. Ashley Fitzpatrick said the church holds two major food drives per year, one in November and the other in the spring.
The church puts together packets of basic necessities; soup, baking mix, coffee and canned sweet potatoes, among other things. The church has a bin set aside for the action center, and it is always full.
“[The Bible has] the two commandments: “Love the Lord with all your mind and strength,’ and ‘Love your neighbor as you would love yourself’ and these people are literally our neighbors in the community and it’s our calling in life to help them,” Fitzpatrick said.
The Suthers Center for Christian Outreach in Chamblee, which serves that community and Brookhaven, gives grocery bags full of food to approximately 120 families a month. Its primary supporters are St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church, Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church, Brookhaven Christian Church and Brookhaven United Methodist Church.
“Our faith teaches us to help others and that’s what causes us to come together and volunteer with donations of money and food,” said manager Sandy Rose. “You don’t get a sermon here when you come in for help. We don’t have a prayer session. We’re trying to help our fellow man. I think that’s what Jesus would want us to do … I’m sure Jewish people would do the same and Muslim people would do the same.”
