Community food bank ends pandemic run

Initiative handed out nearly 170,000 boxes since start.

Today will be the last day trucks file into the parking lot behind the Cobb Galle- ria Centre to collect pallets of fresh fruits and veggies.

A large-scale food distribution operation that’s handed out nearly 170,000 boxes of food since the pandemic began last year has operated from the Galleria’s property since March.

It’s one of three sites the Cobb Commu nity Food Fleet has shuffled through since it became a centralized resource in the fight against food insecurity in May 2020.

“It’s sad to see it come to an end,” said Shari Martin, president and CEO of the Cobb County Community Foundation, which has helped oversee the program. “But there’s also a great sense of pride because we know that by pulling organizations together and creating the single, centralized location for the delivery ... we were able to bring 4.4 million pounds of food to Cobb County that wouldn’t have been here otherwise.”

A coalition of more than 90 nonprofits, churches, small businesses, charitable organizations, large corporations, local and federal government agencies joined forces to facilitate the mas- sive food bank initiative.

At its peak, the Community Food Fleet handed out about 4,500 boxes of food each week.

The Cobb County Community Foundation, an Atlanta-based nonprofit, teamed with the Noonday Association of Churches to manage the operation. Volunteers distributed enough food for 3.7 million meals, according to organizers.

The push was originally funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmers to Food Box program, a federal initiative aimed at providing fresh produce, milk, dairy and cooked meats to the disadvantaged.

This year, Cobb County government officials have invested American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds into food assistance programs, making a centralized food distribution point like the Community Food Fleet less of a critical need in Cobb County.

One of the group’s biggest partners was the Atlanta Braves. Martin reached out to the team’s foundation in May and asked if she could use the 3,000-square-foot cold storage facility at Truist Park.

The Braves agreed to let organizers use the stadium’s cooler for up to 30 food pallets. They also allowed volunteers to use Truist Park’s loading dock and provided more than 100 stadium workers to help load food boxes onto delivery trucks.

“I think one of the things that we were able to do with the Cobb Community Fleet is elevate the story,” Danielle Bedasse, executive director of the Atlanta Braves Foun- dation. “Being the Atlanta Braves and you tell people you’re going to pick up your food boxes at the park ... This legitimized the oper- ation in a lot of ways.”

The food distribution operated out of Truist Park for about a month in 2020 before the pandemic-shortened baseball season began.

It moved to a “back alley” behind the Sweetwater Mission in Austell in June 2020 and set up shop at the Cobb Galleria Centre 11 weeks later, Martin said. The distribution point returned to Truist Park when the Braves’ season ended in October. In March, when the baseball season kicked off again, the Community Food Fleet relocated back to Sweetwater Mission for two weeks. They’ve oper- ated from the Galleria property since March 18.

Bedasse said the Braves plans to welcome represen- tatives from each of the participating organizations to Truist Park and recognize them during the Sept. 30 game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

“I think the network that has been built and the true sense of community and coming together to figure out how to solve problems and meet the needs of our neighbors is really central to everything that we will be going forward with,” she said.