In Your Community
Cobb Community Foundation Announces Cobb Community Food Fleet By Cory Sekine-Pettite
T
hese times certainly are unprecedented, and it is easy to get overwhelmed with all of the virusrelated news. But if you look and listen, there are bright spots, particularly when it comes to charity. In the toughest of times, people are quick to come together to help the less fortunate. One local organization that’s always there for the people of Cobb is the Cobb Community Foundation (CCF). Since the pandemic began, the people at CCF have resolved to help in any way they can. For example, the CCF recently announced an initiative bringing together Noonday Association, Athena Farms, the Atlanta Braves, Ryder Trucks, S.A. White Oil Company, Mobilized Fuels, and numerous Cobb County non-profits who are working together to ensure that lack of storage space does not hinder Cobb non-profits’ food
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distribution efforts to those in need. The Cobb Community Food Fleet began as an idea in mid-March when CCF contacted the United Way of Metro Atlanta – NW Region and Cobb Collaborative to assist in pulling together a group of non-profit, school district, and county government leaders to share the challenges each group and their constituencies were facing, make known the resources each group had available, and determine the best path forward to meet the needs in Cobb County. One of the many outcomes resulting from this group’s efforts is that in an environment where more than 100,000
Cobb residents have lost their jobs — more than half of them being in the lowest paying industries — Cobb’s non-profits are providing boxes of food to more than 5,000 families each week. “Many of these organizations did not know that each other existed,” said Howard Koepka of Noonday, who coordinates the communications among 20-plus separate organizations distributing food in Cobb County, ranging from MUST Ministries to the two school systems to Cobb Senior Services to smaller organizations such as H.O.P.E. Family Resource Center in Mableton. “Now, they not only are aware of each other, they are eliminating duplications of services, identifying and serving areas unserved, and literally sharing food, box trucks, and other resources to make sure that everyone in Cobb County has access to food, regardless of
