Some of the volunteers with over 14,000 pounds of food to distibute. Back in the 1930s, there was a song that asked, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” In 2009, about the only place a dime would do any good is at the Agape Store on the Colquitt square. You will be surprised to learn that every dime that is made there goes toward buying food for the Colquitt Food Bank.

Did you get too much for Christmas, your birthday or any time of the year? When you switch closets as the seasons change, do you have a hard time getting the winter in the closets and the summer hung up? Do you have “stuff” that you haven’t used in over a year?

A wise person once said, “If you don’t need something in a year, you probably don’t need it.”

The Colquitt Food Bank is now feeding over 300 families each month. This is not done without much volunteerism and even many more donations that help buy the food that is distributed to hundreds of families from several counties in this area.

Volunteers get ready to distribute the bagged food and household goods. Allen and Alice Cobb volunteer hundreds of hours helping coordinate the Colquitt Food Bank as they buy the food that is distributed each month to qualifying families and individuals with the help of many faithful volunteers.

The Colquitt United Methodist Church started an Agape Store several years ago to help those who were in need to purchase clothing and household goods at a drastically reduced price. Also if someone had a fire and needed clothes and other things at the Agape Store, the doors were opened to them. Hundreds of families go to the Agape Store to purchase “pre-used” clothes and other items at near giveaway prices. The store is run by volunteers who take in the donations, price the stock, sell the goods, and all the proceeds are used to finance the Colquitt Food Bank.

There are far too many volunteers who help at the Agape Store and the food bank to mention them all. Those volunteers who lead are Allen and Alice Cobb with the Colquitt Food Bank and Larry and Virginia Whitaker with the Agape Store. One organization would not work without the other.

It takes lots of volunteers to make all of this do what it does. If Sheriff H.E. Glass did not allow Chief Jailer, Lavon Cook to oversee the group of trusties to help with the Food Bank, it could not be.

Last month, the Miller County trusties unloaded over 14,000 pounds of food at the church. These same trusties, with the help of 25 or 30 church volunteers, sack and distribute the food to over 300 families. Those in need seem to increase each month. They are carefully screened to determine need.

The estimated worth of the bags of groceries and household items varies from month to month from $100-$200 per family. Items include fresh fruits and vegetables in season, canned goods, frozen meats and frozen vegetables and fruits. Citizens, church members, shoppers donate household goods, foods and school supplies. This is a monthly service held on the third Saturday of each month.

This is a community project where anyone and everyone is welcomed and urged to donate or volunteer. Many churches donate, and volunteers as far away as Lake Seminole help. Your gifts of used goods and not needed items to the Agape Store, your canned food and household items to the Colquitt Food Bank and monetary contributions help others to keep this worthy project going and growing.

The Lord will bless you, and the needy will thank you.