This weekend three of us headed down to Atlanta First United Methodist Church in downtown Atlanta to volunteer with the Midtown Assistance Center or MAC for short. MAC services low income individuals in the community and is sponsored by many of the downtown churches.
MAC offers a food pantry and clothes closet as well as other services to assist these individuals.
With the holidays in full swing, their donations were up and volunteers were down.
We started in the food pantry. Many schools had done food drives and brought in boxes and boxes of food that now had to be organzied by item and placed in shelves so that finding these items would be easier.
We were told that items like Green Beans and Corn are more than plentiful but that many of the requests are for more of meat products like Spagetti and Meatballs, canned fruit, collard greens, and okra.
It was amazing the generosity of people and children to donate food less fortunate than them and so in time for the holidays. But MAC representatives told us the time that they have a need when the shelves are not so full and boxes are not coming in as quickly is summer.
After less than an hour with the help of other volunteers, the food pantry was completely organized and ready for the rest of the month’s requests.
We then moved on to the clothes closet that just simply need to be checked for resizing. What great clothes people had donated and in great shape! I kept thinking about the clothes in my own closet that I keep holding on to for no good apparent reason that I need to bring in for MAC’s use.
With the number of people helping, we had everything completed in less than 2 hours. WOW — 2 hours of volunteering to assist an organization that will help hundreds of individuals make it thru to another day.
While this blog posting has nothing to do with our regular blog on JSU or sports, I just wanted to share that even YOU can do something to assist others —once a week, a month, a quarter, or a year….from organizing cans and clothes to feeding the hungry…what YOU can do can truly make a difference to others! And maybe make the “Reason for the Season” be one of a difference all year long!
