Before sunrise on Saturday morning, September 20, 2021, Feed the Boro (FTB) volunteers were unloading a tractor trailer load of food from Second Harvest Food Bank.
Simultaneously, another team of volunteers were setting up the parking lots of Statesboro High School for an emergency food distribution. Over the next few hours they would distribute enough food to feed 300 families of four.
Led by Don Poe, the Feed the Boro team of volunteers, who number in the hundreds, have stepped up heroically in our comminutes greatest time of need over and over again.
When they finished their eighth emergency food drop this past Saturday, they had distributed enough food to provide 369,000 meals to 6,600 Bulloch county families.
However, they are not done. They continue to raise funds to allow them to hold monthly food drops through the holiday season. FTB's next emergency food drop is scheduled for Saturday, October 16th at SHS.
Retooling FTB to make the greatest impact
Feed the Boro (FTB) had become a Thanksgiving Day tradition in Bulloch County for over 26 years. 2019 was a record setting year for FTB. Hundreds of volunteers worked for days to prep, cook, plate, and deliver over 5,000 traditional Thanksgiving meals to Bulloch, Candler and Evans Counties.
Everything was different in 2020 due to COVID. They realized that packing hundreds of people, shoulder to shoulder in the SHS kitchen would not be possible.
After consulting with the Statesboro Food Bank, Christian Social Ministries and Second Harvest Food Bank it was determined that the best way to help was to hold food drops to alleviate some pressure of the food banks.
This meant FTB would be required to completely retool the organization and rally its army of volunteers to help our community in a different way that still met the goals of their mission.
FTB's mission includes a goal of providing food, love, and hope to as many people in Bulloch County as possible.
Feed the Boro has no paid employees. The organization is a non-profit corporation registered as a 501c3. Every member of the FTB team donates their time so that all of the contributions can go directly to assisting others in our community.
Mayor McCollar presents FTB with Key to the City
After visiting one of the food drops and seeing the incredible impact Feed the Boro was making in our community, Statesboro Mayor Jonathan McCollar invited the FTB leadership to city hall where they were presented a Key to the City by the Mayor on behalf of the city council.
In addition, the City of Statesboro funded several additional food drops.
The Feed the Boro Committee includes:
- Don Poe
- Mary Poe
- Dewayne Grice
- Lori Grice
- Tod Marsh
- Austin Donaldson
- Roger Smith
- Kaleb Moore
- Wayne Williams
- Daisy Hollingsworth
- Rich McCombs
- George Moore
- Beverly Johnson
- Cary Swanson
- Patrick Robertson
- Jeff Hurst
- Paula Hall
- Dayjion Johnson
- Kevin Wright, SHS Principal, Ex-Officio member
Grice Good
Don Poe and this wonderful team, continue to step up for our community in extraordinary ways.
For that reason this Grice Good salutes EVERYONE who has donated financially or physically to allow Feed the Boro to continue to make a huge difference in our community.
A special thanks to Food Lion who has continued its support of FTB ad the presenting sponsor.
Visit Feed the Boro's website at www.feedtheboro.com or their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/feedboro/ to learn more about donating or volunteering.
