Solidarity Sandy Springs celebrated its new location at Sandy Springs Plaza with a ribbon cutting on April 24. The organization provides nutritious food for families in need.
Solidarity board members and volunteers, city and community leaders, and supporters gathered at 6315 Roswell Road, the seventh home for the organization in its four years.
Mayor Rusty Paul said it has been a bit of a vagabond organization, having to search for a new home many times.
“But that’s the great thing about Sandy Springs; they’ve always been able to find one,” he said.
Sandy Springs is an affluent community, but Paul said when he attended the Atlanta Regional Commission’s retreat last Friday, they went over poverty numbers for each community.
“We’ve got a lot of money in this community, it’s no question. We’ve also got a lot of people who live below the poverty level,” he said.
Solidarity serves 750-800 families each week, with more than 100,000 people served since March 2020.
“We can help them keep healthy food on their tables and provide them with a little bit of wiggle room so they don’t have to worry quite so much about the cost of living in Sandy Springs,” Solidarity Chairperson Natalie Holloway told Rough Draft.
Founder Jennifer Barnes said Solidarity began as neighbors helping neighbors, with a group of moms who wanted to make sure nobody went hungry in their backyard. Then COVID-19 came, and resources were limited. In the beginning they kept people from going hungry, she said. Now Solidarity is a good base for people.
Solidarity has another goal to increase the nutritional density of what they feed people to promote health.
“I’ll tell you we’re primarily serving a Hispanic community and food in that community and in most communities is love. So we are just here to do what we can to make life just a little bit easier and a little bit better for everybody around us,” Barnes said.
Barnes said the new location is off the beaten path on the back side of the Sandy Springs Plaza. She said they would make it “the cutest little warehouse you’ve ever seen.”
“Here at Regency, we’re just very excited to partner with Solidarity Sandy Springs and we’re happy to have them on the property. We look forward to a long partnership,” said Andrea Marks, the property manager at Sandy Springs Plaza for its owner, Regency Centers.