The Food Bank of Northeast Georgia occupies a prominent spot in the Covered Bridge Shopping Center right off Highway 441. And although you may pass by on a daily basis, you probably don’t realize all that’s happening inside.
The Food Bank of Northeast Georgia was founded in Athens in 1992 in an effort to end hunger in 14 counties. In 2016, a Mountain Branch location was added in Clayton. Much more than “just” a food bank, this facility is a distribution center that enables the organization to better serve the counties of Georgia’s mountain region. It is a state-of-the-art facility complete with a teaching kitchen, commercial kitchen, and frozen food processing line.
Branch Director James Brim says that beyond providing fresh and nutritious food to the needy, the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia wants to empower people to make healthy choices and learn new skills.
The Teaching Kitchen in Clayton offers free nutrition and cooking classes available to eligible residents of Rabun, Towns, Habersham, Stephens, and White Counties. There are also ticketed programs open to the public that include hands-on cooking classes, nutrition lessons, chef demonstrations, farmers’ market activities and farm-to-table dinners. Proceeds from these ticketed classes support local programs. Contact the Food Bank for details.
The Clayton facility is also home to an ultra-modern flash-freezing production line where produce is preserved both for local market sales and to increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables in the diets of people in our community. The Instant Quick Freeze line preserves over 200,000 pounds of food per year including French fry potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, blueberries, strawberries, carrots, red and green peppers and blackberries.
In addition, the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia hosts the Clayton Farmers’ Market each Saturday, April through October, as a way to help bring local produce, eggs, honey, baked goods and crafts to the people of Northeast Georgia.
With more than 25 years of experience serving the community, the Food Bank now distributes more than 11 million pounds of food to its 14-county service area through more than 225 partner organizations every year.
The Food Bank of Northeast Georgia gathers donated items and purchased surplus food and distributes it to human-service agencies. These smaller non-profits then distribute that food to local community members in need. The Food Bank works with local, regional, state, and national product partners to bring food into the community. Product partners include manufacturers, grocers/retailers, distributors, trucking companies, farms, individuals and organizations all dedicated to helping others.
The Food Bank’s primary form of distribution is working with over 225 soup kitchens, food pantries, senior centers, churches, and other non-profit hunger relief organizations. These partner agencies gain access to food either through the Food Bank’s online inventory system or by selecting items from the shopping floor. The online inventory system provides items in case or pallet-size quantities. The shopping floor provides supplemental food and is similar to a grocery store allowing partner agencies to hand-select food from the shelves or pallets of miscellaneous products.
Hundreds of families are served simultaneously through a direct “farmers’ market” style distribution format. The Food Bank provides a truckload of food, a delivery driver, gas, refrigeration, and transportation of food for approximately 25 to 27 Mobile Pantries a month. Partner agencies provide the location and manpower and publicize the food distribution. The box trucks serve about 300 families or 12,000 meals; while the tractor trailers serve nearly 600 families or 24,000 meals.
The Food Bank of Northeast Georgia’s Childhood Hunger services to help alleviate the daily threat of hunger for local children. These programs include the Food 2 Kids, Food 2 Kids 360, Food 2 Tots, and Mobile School Food Pantry Programs. The Food 2 Kids program provides weekend meal bags to over 1,500 students per week. Food 2 Kids 360 program provides meal bags during the summer months to over 500 children. The Food 2 Tots program provides weekend meals to young children who are not yet school aged. And the Mobile School Food Pantry program distributes bulk food directly to families.
The Food Bank of Northeast Georgia’s Senior Hunger services help food-insecure seniors in the community. These programs include the Senior Brown Bag that distributes 38 pounds of food a month to over 400 local seniors and the Senior Mobile Pantry programs that distribute food at senior centers.
The services offered by the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia are plentiful, but the need is even greater. If you NEED assistance, please give them a call. If you want to PROVIDE assistance, please give them a call. Donations and volunteers are always welcomed.
Food Bank of Northeast Georgia
46 Plaza Way
Clayton, GA 30524
Phone: 706.782.0780
Email: mtndirector@foodbanknega.org
Website: www.foodbanknega.org