Acworth Food Pantry Meets Community Needs, Donating More than 1 Million Pounds of Food in the Pandemic

Acworth United Methodist Church has operated a food pantry every Tuesday for many years. Before COVID, a small group of closely-knit mostly senior volunteers served about 30 families per week through the food pantry.

But since March of 2020, there has been a great increase in need in the community. Within a matter of a few weeks, the ministry went from seeing 30 families a week to more than 300 per week. At its peak, the church served 400 families a week.

Obviously to meet those needs the operation needed to change on the fly. The pantry needed more food, more space, and many more volunteers in a hurry. Amazingly, it happened.

Thanks to their partnership with the Atlanta Community Food Bank, the ministry had enough food to offer. They converted the operation into a drive-through pantry, moved to a different larger building of the church, purchased freezers, refrigerators, carts, and a pallet jack, and recruited many volunteers. With lots of hard work, the ministry met the need.

In 2020, the pantry served 654,836 pounds of food, 34,990 people, 8,739 homes. (In January of 2020 the church gave 7,613 pounds of food and in December of 2020 they gave 94,978 pounds.) In 2021,the pantry served 618,289 pounds of food, 37,046 people, 9,981 homes. Many of these are families with children or seniors. 

In mid-2021, the church was proud to announce the distribution of more than one million pounds of food since March of 2020.

Fortunately, the need has lessened some over the past year. Currently, the church is serving 180 families a week. It operates every Tuesday from noon to 4 p.m. or until the food runs out.

To learn more, contact church member Curtis Hope at curtisthope@gmail.com.