Serving the Hungry During the Pandemic: Cascade UMC Feeds Nearly 2,000 Families With a Week’s Worth of Food

By Rebecca Wallace
 
Last Monday, staff, members, and volunteers of Cascade United Methodist Church in Atlanta convened on the church campus at 3:30 a.m. to distribute more than 1,700 food boxes. Each box contained enough food to serve a family breakfast, lunch, and dinner for an entire week.
 
This annual effort is the signature initiative of Cascade’s "New Advent Choir" led by Director Yergan Jones.

“In addition to the 1,700 boxes distributed on campus, we were able to provide all 200 residences at the Quality Living Services Garden Apartments on Campbellton Road with Thanksgiving boxes,” explained Jones.
 
With extra precautions taken to ensure the safety of volunteers and recipients amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Cascade UMC has continued to be a light in the community through their many feeding programs in recent months. With the Smart Lunch Smart Kid program, the church community provided more than 450 students with a weekend’s worth of lunch each week and will continue to do so through the remainder of the year. Cascade UMC also feeds between 400-500 low-income seniors each month in partnership with USDA.
 
The Thanksgiving week food box program, however, is Cascade’s largest feeding project each year. And this year it is as important as ever! 
 
Rebecca Wallace is a communications consultant (and United Methodist) in Atlanta.