Rev. Ike Reighard said he realized how serious COVID-19 was going to be when churches and casinos closed at the same time in March, as lockdowns began.
“When Heaven and Hell agree, we ought to take note,” quipped the senior pastor at Piedmont Church in East Cobb and president and CEO of MUST Ministries.
He told an in-person and online meeting of the East Cobb Business Association Tuesday that one of Cobb County’s prominent non-profits had its hands full tending to the crushing need for food, clothing, shelter and job assistance as pandemic-related closings threw thousands out of work and homes, and needing help providing the basics for their families.
Before they could do that, he said, the MUST staff had to reorganize its own staff, especially since they couldn’t rely on a volunteer army of around 17,000.
Instead of serving around 33,000 people in a typical year in an eight-county area, MUST has provided some form of help to nearly 125,000 people since March alone.
“We’ve already quadrupled what we do in an entire year,” Reighard said.
That includes more than a million meals, a million pounds of food for direct distribution and via pantries, putting up 238 households in motels when the MUST shelter closed and serving 78,000 total households in one form or another.
Another 400,000 meals have been provided to school students over the summer, in conjunction with the Cobb County School District, as well as other partnerships.
“To witness how people come together like this is one of the most encouraging things I’ve ever seen,” he said. As overwhelming as the needs have been, “even more overwhelming is the generosity of this community.”
He was asked to inspire business leaders who like so many have been adversely affected by the economic impact of the response to the virus.
Brimming with his usual enthusiasm, Reighard said the only way to approach such daunting challenges is that “you have to choose your attitude.
“We decided we would have to rise above the situation. We weren’t going to shut our doors. We just couldn’t disappear in our community when our community needs us the most.”
He said his staff had to “get really creative” when its main food supplier, the Atlanta Community Food Bank, became overwhelmed with requests from other non-profits.
MUST volunteers helped distribute student meals at various schools that were paid through the federal school lunch program.
With the Cobb County School District phasing in classroom returns next month, Reighard said work is finishing on restocking 39 food pantries in some of those and other schools.
Next month, MUST will break ground on a new 130-bed shelter on its current campus on Cobb Parkway near Bells Ferry Road. It’s the first phase of a two-phase process to nearly double capacity, as construction will continue into MUST’s 50th year in 2021.
Reighard said while needs in the community will remain high and the challenges to provide basic services will prove considerable, “let’s not let that define us.
“We’ve got a lot of obstacles ahead of us, but we’re going to get through this. The best is yet to come.”
MUST continues to accept donations at its donation center (1280 Field Parkway, Marietta), from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For information on making financial contributions, click here.
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