Food Bank of Northeast Georgia
The Food Bank of Northeast Georgia has received a $465,000 gift from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for the acquisition and distribution of food to meet demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Food Bank will purchase additional food, upgrade vehicles in its distribution fleet, improve some warehouse equipment and offer cold and dry storage equipment to partner agencies. These efforts and are made possible through the generous gift from Bezos to Feeding America, which directly regranted funds to support the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia’s COVID-19 response work in this community.
“We are deeply grateful to Mr. Bezos for this extraordinary gift,” said Chuck Toney, the executive director of the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia. “At a time when our communities are under intense economic pressure and many people are seeking food assistance for the first time through our network of partner agencies, this gift will help us meet that need efficiently and effectively.”
“On behalf of the Food Bank board, we are both humbled and very grateful to Mr. Bezos for this remarkable contribution,” said Darrell Goodman, chair of the Food Bank board. “This gift will help us meet pressing fleet and equipment needs in addition to providing food for people seeking assistance as a result of the pandemic.”
The Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, established in 1992, serves a 14-county area through a network of 230 partner agencies. It also operates the Food 2 Kids weekend feeding program, the Senior Brown Bag program and monthly Mobile Food Pantries.
Toney emphasized that even with the receipt of this gift, the need for financial support remains strong.
“The gift will provide short-term food relief, but we anticipate demand for food to continue to increase for the next several months as unemployment keeps rising and more people enter our network for the first time to seek food assistance,” he said. "We continue to ask for the generous financial support of our communities, who understand that there is no more fundamentally human act than feeding someone who is hungry."