A holiday food drive led by Ellijay’s Pepsi distribution plant brought a truckload of needed items to the Gilmer Community Food Pantry last week.
The Pepsi plant’s employees conducted the food drive in front of the local Ingles, Food Lion and Walmart stores the first three weekends in December, noted Dwight Childers, the plant’s general manager.
“We took a Pepsi truck and parked it in front of the stores, and it was basically filling the truck with food for the food pantry,” Childers said. “We worked with the local store managers (to do that). At Food Lion, they had food boxes prepared, and the customer bought those and gave them to us out front. We did the same thing at Ingles. The last weekend, we prepared bags at Walmart and (customers) brought those out and gave them to us.”
Allen Triebel, the food pantry’s director, said the Pepsi drive provided six pallets of groceries weighing approximately 3,500 pounds. The effort concentrated on providing specific items that can’t be obtained from the pantry’s food suppliers, he noted.
Those items included individual food cups, Ramen noodles, fruit cups, certain canned goods and bottled condiments like ketchup and mayo, Triebel said.
“Everything we got was stuff we can’t buy from other places,” he added. “They (brought) at least a dozen of the types of needed items we can’t get anywhere else.”
The local Pepsi plant has donated drinks and water to the food pantry before, but it was the first time they’d done this kind of food drive, Triebel confirmed. He’s appreciative of the Pepsi plant’s employees and the local community for making it a success.
“They really did a lot,” Triebel said. “The results are full shelves of long needed food supplies.”
Childers said the food drive was spearheaded by the plant’s delivery lead, Terry Kirkland, and it will continue for 2022.
“We’re definitely going to do that for the community,” he confirmed.
Fewer clients have been served at the pantry since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Triebel noted. Food is distributed at the 5273 Highway 52 East location on Wednesdays, from 9 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
“Last month, we had 300-plus families for the whole month. It would’ve normally been 500-plus families. We had been averaging 100-150 families a week for December,” Triebel said.
The pantry’s volunteer staff is always looking for ways to get food to local families and individuals in need. Its Sack Pack program currently provides bagged food for 372 elementary school-age children each week.
Food is also provided to the Gilmer High School’s food pantry and the Gilmer Senior Center, Triebel noted.
“We’re giving out more food to less people. We gave out 480,800 pounds of food in 2021, which was the highest amount since 2015, even though less people are coming,” he added.