The Community Assistance Center said recent analysis shows that the average family of four receiving help from the nonprofit organization gets food worth almost $800 per month through its supplemental food program.
“We’re serving families in our community who are going through a rough time right now. Any of us could be there in that spot,” CAC CEO Francis Horton said. “Right now, this group of families happens to be going through a tough time and we’re stepping in the gap to help them through a crisis time.”
The CAC Mini-Markets include shelf-stable and fresh foods like produce, bread, meat, dairy products, and prepared foods. Every week there are different, high-quality items for clients to select. There is no cost to CAC clients to shop at CAC Mini-Markets. The people helped instead are limited to a certain amount per week based on the size of their family unit.
To come up with the $800 monthly figure, CAC Food Pantry Manager Gretty Figueroa took a “shopping trip” at the main Mini-Market, according to a CAC press release. She selected food as if she were a client shopping for a family of four. She ended up with a shopping cart filled with fresh leafy greens, new potatoes, and apples, nestled next to multiple containers of refrigerated dairy products and plant-based milk. Cans and boxes of pantry staples were chosen, and frozen, quality cuts of meat. On this shopping trip, pre-made fresh meals, a package of baked pastries, and whole-grain bread rounded out this weekly food supplement.
Figueroa calculated what the market price for the foods would be at local grocers and came up with a $185 weekly total.
CAC gets food from partners including the Atlanta Community Food Bank, Midwest Food Bank, and Second Helpings Atlanta. In addition, the organization has relationships with local grocery stores. Shelves at the mini markets might have products from Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s Costco, Publix, Kroger, Walmart, and other grocers.
“Another way that we serve those families is that we’re coming up on summer. And one of the things that we do in the summer for those families is provide summer lunches for kids who normally get free lunches at school,” Horton said.
CAC tries to step in that gap and fill some holes for the families so they can at least make it through the summer, he said.
Mini-Market Manager Glenn Lewallen said CAC volunteers have so much compassion and love for these people. It’s amazing,”
Some volunteers have been coming for 15 to 20 years, he said. And they have more than 400 volunteers.
The Community Assistance Center (CAC) operates three CAC Mini-Markets in the Perimeter area:
- CAC Mini-Market Food Patry at 8607 Roswell Road in Sandy Springs;
- South Sandy Springs Branch at 120 Northwood Drive, Sandy Springs, and;
- Dunwoody Branch at 5 Dunwoody Park South, Building 5, Suite 113, Dunwoody.
Donations of most-needed items can be made at the main CAC Mini-Market at 8607 Roswell Road. Monday to Friday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., or Saturdays from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Horton said a look at the empty shelves in the main mini-market’s storage area shows the need that CAC has.
“We’ve got a list of things that we badly need a website. We need those things donated a lot of dried goods, beans, rice, pasta, those kinds of things that go to those families,” he said.
But Communications and Marketing Manager Laura Deupree said the CAC can get out of each dollar donated. A person making a monetary donation enables the CAC to buy even more food than the donor could with that same money thanks to partners like the Atlanta Food Bank.
To donate food and access the urgent food pantry needs, or to make a financial contribution, visit online at www.ourcac.org/give-food.