Making A Difference: NETWorks Cooperative Ministry

By Victoria R. Crosby

In this season of giving gifts and eating large meals, it is important to understand how many people, especially children, are in poverty suffering from hunger, which is now known as food insecurity.

I recently attended a lecture by people who are helping the situation. The talk was titled Food Insecurity and Homelessness in Tucker, featuring Executive Director David Fisher of NETWorks Cooperative Ministry.

Before introducing David, Mayor Frank Auman of Tucker introduced Don Andersen who spoke about the cold weather shelter that opened at the Tucker First United Methodist Church five years ago. The gym was converted into a shelter run by volunteers to provide a safe, secure place for men and women from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., when the temperatures are 30 degrees or below. The shelter averages thirteen men and five women, who, after being checked by an off-duty police officer, are provided with a hot meal and given a cot with a blanket while being kept socially distanced. Showers are available for the guests, and volunteers take shifts overnight, while a volunteer fireman keeps watch. The volunteers provide the guests with information about NETWorks, housing, and other helpful resources.

Gaye Auman, the mayor’s wife, also spoke of the importance of supporting NETWorks. She is a retired schoolteacher who has worked with children from kindergarten through 3rd grade, and in every class she said there were children who were living in poverty.

David Fisher has been the executive director of NETWorks since 2016, following his long career in the food service design and renovation business. Originally from California, David graduated with a degree in economics from the University of Notre Dame and has lived in Atlanta with his wife, Joy, since 1989. They have two children. Joy is an ordained Presbyterian minister and works for the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta.

NETWorks includes twenty-one church partners who donate food, financial assistance, and parishioners who volunteer.

“When the pandemic hit in March 2020,” David said, “the demand for food and other assistance went through the roof. Many food pantries closed, but our attendance increased.”

The way people get into the system varies, he explained. Sometimes a person will the lose a job, then can’t pay the rent or mortgage, or they have to choose between paying bills and buying enough food to sustain them.

“Poverty is traumatic,” David explained. “It affects your ability to think and function. The Pandemic caused more people to become food insecure, not knowing where their next meal is coming from.”

Many children are born into poverty. If the mother didn’t have enough nutrition during pregnancy, the child can be born with health problems; then not having adequate nourishment during the childhood growth

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