DEL.ICIO.USThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/19/08
When Kendall Jennings hears "come back later" while collecting pasta and peanut butter for her swim team's food drive, her canvassing confidence doesn't drop. Instead, Jennings thanks her neighbor, promises to return later in the week, then stretches out on the grass and rolls down the sloped front lawn with the gusto that only a 13-year-old could muster.
Jennings joins six other girls waiting at the bottom of the hill with wagons in tow — all members of the Mighty Mallards, the Neely Farm neighborhood swim team in Peachtree Corners. The team's weeklong food drive culminates tonight at the Neely Farm pool. For tonight's swim meet, they've invited their opponents from Spring Ridge in Roswell to join in collecting food for the Norcross Cooperative Ministry. Gwinnett County cooperative ministries are feeling the pinch of recent food and gas price hikes, seasonal donation lulls and community needs that are greater than in past summers.
 Vino Wong/AJC | ||
| Sterling Feininger, 13, pulls a wagon filled with donated food items through the Neely Farm neighborhood of Peachtree Corners. Members of the Mighty Mallards swim team collect the items and give them to Norcross Cooperative Ministry. | ||
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Cooperative ministries help struggling families by providing food, clothing, job training and spiritual ministry to applicants. Some even foot rent and utility bills people bring in.
The swim team members realize that bread-and-butter needs exist outside their gated brick and stucco neighborhoods. "Gas is so high, food is so high," said Sterling Feininger, 13. She and her teammates are clad in neon green "Mighty Mighty Mallards Quack Attack" T-shirts and flip-flop sandals as they knock door-to-door. "A lot of people are losing their jobs."
The food drive idea emerged while the Jennings family stood in line at a Publix checkout counter. They struck up a conversation with a woman carting several bulk items. She was a volunteer at the Norcross Cooperative Ministry.
"After that little conversation, we felt like we needed to do something," said Kevin Jennings, Kendall's mother and organizer for the 100-member swim team's first food drive.
"The need is definitely there. There's more mouths to feed because school is out," she said.
The Mallards' canned-good drive is not the only special effort under way to help co-ops.
Over in Lilburn, members of Mountain Park United Methodist Church have taken up hoes and tillers to help that community's co-op.
Meet the SPUDS. The church has started a "tater patch." We're talking small red potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Buckhead Electric Co. of Lilburn owns the land — about a quarter of an acre — near the church off Rockbridge Road. The company gave Buck Hendrix, a homeowner whose backyard abuts the tract, the OK to farm it.
Church members approached Hendrix with the idea of growing produce for the Lilburn Cooperative Ministry, which they've supported for years.
"They asked, I gave," Hendrix said. "It's good garden soil, and I thought there was a need."
The project was started by Charles Barnes, a retired minister, and Diane Whetstone, wife of Mountain Park pastor Gary Whetsone. Organizers decided to plant something that required little maintenance, but had a high yield and could keep.
Looks like they hit pay dirt. Last week, church volunteers delivered 1,200 pounds of red potatoes to the co-op.
"It took two pickup loads to get them there," said Wanna Philpot of Stone Mountain, a member of the church. "It's good that the [needy] can have some good organic produce."
The sweet potatoes won't be ready till fall, but volunteers expect the harvest to be substantial.
"We could deliver maybe 2,000 pounds," Barnes predicted. "This is something we have never done before. It's been good to see the building of bonds come out of this."
Mountain East Community Church also rounded up some much-needed basics for the Lilburn cooperative: milk and eggs. So far, they've delivered more than 100 gallons of milk and 40 dozen eggs. Dot York, a weekly volunteer at the co-op and Mountain East church member of 10 years, knows kids want things like hot dogs and peanut butter, not just canned green beans. "But the kids need milk to wash that peanut butter and jelly down," York said.
AJC Gwinnett News columnist Rick Badie contributed to this article.
GWINNETT COUNTY CO-OPS
• Most needed items:
• cereal/oats/grits
• canned fruit
• canned meats (except tuna)
• macaroni and cheese
• crackers
• jelly
• Jell-o/instant pudding
• personal care items
• school supplies
Duluth Cooperative Ministry
3395 Fox St., Building 101, Duluth. 770-623-9563; www.duluthco-op.org
Lawrenceville Cooperative Ministry
176 Church St., Lawrenceville. 770-339-7887; www.lawrenceville
co-op.org
Lilburn Cooperative Ministry
5329 Five Forks Trickum Road, Lilburn. 770-931-8333
Norcross Cooperative Ministry
2275 Mitchell Road, Norcross. 770-263-8268 (client services) or 770-263-0013 (donations); www.norcrossco-op.org
North Gwinnett Cooperative Ministries
70 Wiley Drive, Buford. 770-271-9793; www.north
gwinnettcoop.org
Southeast Gwinnett Cooperative Ministry
1200 Athens Highway, Grayson. 770-985-5229
Most needed items:
• cereal/oats/grits
• canned fruit
• canned meats (except tuna)
• macaroni and cheese
• crackers
• jelly
• jello/instant pudding
• personal care items
• school supplies
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