ASHBURN, Ga. — Shepherd’s Pantry in South Georgia’s Turner County has resumed weekly food pick-ups in the city of Ashburn.
The free food drive-thru had dropped to an every-other-Thursday schedule in March and April because of a drop in donations and increase in demand.
But once again, Thursday mornings are gameday outside what used to be a middle school on Gilmore Street.
“See, we are independent,” Diane Saylor, the founder and leader of Shephard’s Pantry, told GPB. “We’re not backed by any church, nor do we receive any government funding. Our funding just got low and we just could not keep up.”
On a recent Thursday morning, volunteers prepared for the people lined up in cars around the block by filling 150 boxes with bread, frozen chicken, cereal, pasta and the day’s special: Cuties-branded Mandarin oranges. The smell of citrus filled the air.
The food here comes from Second Harvest of South Georgia, the largest rural food bank in the state. It covers 26 counties in South Georgia.
Eliza McCall with Second Harvest said that even on a good day, South Georgia has the highest rate of food insecurity in the state.
“And it’s been a long time since we have had just a good day — a good normal average day when we weren’t dealing with a pandemic or three hurricanes or, you know, wildfires now, government shutdown,” McCall said. “It’s just kind of been one thing after another.”
Add in high gas prices — which burdens both Second Harvest and the people who rely on the food bank — and you’ve got a whole system feeling the squeeze.
As he waited in line at Shephard’s Pantry, 67-year-old Willy Washington of Turner County said he’s noticed the cost of everything seems to be rising.
“Gas ain’t cheap no more: It’s getting higher and higher,” he said. “It’s a good thing we got this bank here in Ashburn, in Turner County, really. It help out a heap.”
Farther down the line were Mary and James Johnson. They came 15 miles from the city of Pitts. James used to be a truck driver, but he’s disabled now and on dialysis, which requires 100-mile round trips to Albany three times a week. Mary said they borrow money to afford that travel.
“My husband and I, he gets Social Security,” Mary Johnson said. “I get SSI and what we get pays the bills that we have to pay and what little bit we got, what little we have left over might get us maybe a couple of groceries other than that.”
Mary shrugged.
A volunteer called the first car forward a little after 11 a.m. Drivers pulled up slowly, popped their trunks or unlocked their back doors, and volunteers dropped in the goods. Families with children drove up a little farther for a box with extra sweets.
Pantry founder Saylor watched car after car drive off.
“I know where all these people are coming from, and how hard it is in life,” she said. “And we all need somebody to pick us up now and then. And that’s what I’m here for, to help pick anybody up that needs a pick-up.”
Saylor’s attention then turns to next week, because, she saId, the need is always here.
This story comes to 229 Life through a reporting partnership with GPB News, a non-profit newsroom covering the state of Georgia.
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