Give a Little, Gather a Lot
The holiday calendar fills up fast. Before every spare hour belongs to a shopping list or casserole, Georgia’s food drives and packing events offer another use for it: helping someone else get dinner on the table.
Starting November 20, there are practical ways to pitch in, whether you have a free morning, room in the grocery cart or a car ready for deliveries. The trick is choosing a job that fits your schedule, then actually putting it there.
In Marietta, Rise Against Hunger’s Thanksgiving Pack-A-Thon runs November 20–21, seeking 800 volunteers to pack more than 200,000 meals. That is a substantial assembly line with plenty of room for extra hands. Use the volunteer registration page to choose a shift rather than leaving your good intentions floating somewhere between “soon” and “after Thanksgiving.”
Nearby, CAYA Reconciliation Ministries is working toward Thanksgiving meal bags and frozen hens or turkeys for more than 550 families around Dallas, Hiram and Paulding County. Its Thanksgiving outreach brings volunteers to Church of the Vine, 225 Hiram Acworth Highway in Dallas, at 8:30 a.m. November 21 to pack and deliver food. Donations help cover poultry and missing groceries; the requested food list includes stuffing, canned vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy. For anyone who prefers a concrete assignment, packing a bag or making a delivery supplies one.
The work continues after the Thanksgiving dishes are put away. On December 4, the 44th annual 11Alive CAN-A-THON collects nonperishable food from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Lawrenceville, Marietta, Atlanta, Decatur and Fayetteville. Donations restock 13 Salvation Army food pantries, extending the usefulness of that extra grocery purchase beyond one holiday meal.
December 12 brings Hope for Christmas, with thousands of volunteer opportunities across Bartow, Cherokee, Cobb, Floyd, Fulton, Paulding and Pickens counties. The same morning in Savannah, Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia holds Brown Bag Saturday at 1380 Chatham Parkway. Volunteers pack food for older neighbors from 9 a.m. until about noon. Register ahead, arrive at 8:45 for orientation and wear closed-toe shoes.
A few hours, a delivery route or a bag of groceries can fit into the season without becoming another production. Pick the task you can follow through on.
Find more ways to help neighbors through the Georgia charitable organizations directory: https://gbj.com/charitable-organizations
