In the Time of COVID-19: Food and Our Neighbors
Emmaus House in the Time of COVID-19: Responding to the Needs of our Neighbors
Part 2: Food
Navigating Community Needs
Hunger and access to food is consistently an issue for the neighbors of Emmaus House. For many families, benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as Food Stamps, routinely run out before the end of the month. With no major supermarkets in the area, residents have to drive several miles to shop or pay high prices for limited goods in nearby convenience stores. Those without automobiles must carry groceries home on a bus or walk blocks with heavy bags—an especially challenging situation for older residents.
Over the years, Emmaus House has always been there to tide neighbors over, providing groceries from its food pantry to supplement other benefits.
Now, with restrictions in place to avoid COVID-19, the challenges are even greater. Other food pantries in the area have closed. MARTA has reduced bus service. People have lost jobs or had their work hours cut back. And Emmaus House could no longer welcome pantry shoppers into its building to choose their food.
“Overnight we became one of few places in our area still open,” said Adam Seeley, director of social services at Emmaus House. “We had to evaluate our own position—how could we have staff and volunteers serve people? We had to create a whole new model of logistical services. Client and volunteer safety are the top priority instead of efficiency.”
Now clients choose from a list of available products and tell volunteers their choices. The volunteers pull groceries from the shelves, fill bags, and pass them through open doors or windows. People who need food are asked to make appointments to prevent crowding at the facilities, although some walk-ins are served.
To accommodate the greater needs caused by the virus and the limited assistance available, Emmaus House has temporarily suspended requirements for proof of residency and geographic limits on who is eligible for services.
The adjustment hasn’t always been smooth, Seeley said. One complication was that, just before the COVID-19 restrictions were put in place, the Atlanta Community Food Bank—the source of much of Emmaus House’s food supply—was closed for a move into new facilities.
Even though the Emmaus House pantry had to stop services for a week and a half in March because supplies were depleted and the food bank was shut down, statistics show how much demand jumped. “Things just exploded,” Seeley said. Volunteers handed out 6,200 pounds of food to 184 households in less than three weeks, up from 4,600 pounds of food in all of February. In April, the numbers rose to 12,400 pounds.
“Our clients have been really understanding and patient as we’ve made changes as we go along,” Seeley said. “That’s never ideal. You like to have a plan in place before the need for it arises.”
Fortunately, he said, volunteers, donors, and agency partners have come through to help.
Helping Hands
Parishioners from St. Martin’s Episcopal Church are filling bags, which they call Bags of Hope, to bring every week. Other groups and individual families are making donations. And Carver Market in nearby Historic South Atlanta is also selling a version of Bags of Hope for Emmaus House. Church of the Epiphany formed a partnership with Carver Market to sell a version of Bags of Hope for Emmaus House. (The market itself is a model neighborhood resource, founded by Focused Community Strategies (FCS), a nonprofit organization to provide healthy foods and fresh produce at reasonable prices and to provide jobs to neighborhood residents.)
Likewise, organizations are helping to get food out to people who can’t come in for themselves. Welcoming Atlanta, a program of Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ Office of Immigrant Affairs, assists new residents from other countries whose language barriers make it impossible for them to call, make an appointment, and communicate with English-speaking pantry volunteers. To serve the immigrant population, Seeley and Emmaus House executive director Greg Cole bought beans, rice, and tortillas in bulk at the Atlanta State Farmers Market so that the pantry could provide culturally appropriate food.
Innovative Solutions for Disadvantage and Disability, Inc. which works with grandparents raising grandchildren with special needs, makes sure their clients get the food they need from the Emmaus House pantry. And the 5-5-5ers, a homegrown neighborhood group in Peoplestown, receive food at the Emmaus House pantry for their neighbors and members who can’t get out.
The 5-5-5ers are a steady force in the Emmaus House community. Several years ago, five women launched a group for people 55 and older. They planned to meet five times to see whether the organization would gel. They’ve been meeting and working together for neighborhood causes ever since.
Jane Ridley, 75, was out of breath, just arriving home from making a grocery delivery. “I have a back problem, but I do what I can,” she said. Others, she said, do much more.
Rachel Harris, 71, has been on the receiving end. “5-5-5 is bringing food to me,” she said. “It’s slow for me to get around.”
While Emmaus House is making sure its neighbors have food, its neighbors are helping Emmaus House create and maintain community, even in times of pandemic.
Volunteer Mark Laster lives in the neighborhood, works part-time at a local funeral home, and helps run the food pantry in his off time. “We try to make sure we have what people need,” he said. “I try to make sure they’re happy and they make sure I’m happy. We’re like one big family. Customers, too.”
To buy a $35 Bag of Hope from Carver Market:
Go to www.carvermarket.com/emmaushouse, and select the "carry out" option. Emmaus House will pick up the bag. The grocery items include cereal, cereal bars, macaroni and cheese, flour, canned tuna and salmon, rice, beans, black-eyed peas, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, and bath soap. Emmaus House will distribute the bags to individuals and families in the Peoplestown area.
Contact Ann Fowler at 404-525-5948, ext 27 if you have questions.