Cobb Schools and MUST Ministries to open food pantries

New Brumby Elementary School

A total of 29 pantries will open as early as Wednesday at Cobb County School District and other locations, as part of the MUST Ministries Food Rapid Response Program.

That program was put together when the schools closed over the Coronavirus outbreak; CCSD also made food donations to MUST to help get it started.

(MUST and CCSD have been teaming up to open food pantries at a number of schools, including at Brumby Elementary School, which opened in late 2018.)

Since schools will be closed at least through March 31 (per an order issued Monday by Gov. Brian Kemp), this is going to be a long-haul effort, and here’s how the pantry schedule will start out.

In East Cobb, pantries will open on Friday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the following locations:

Brumby ES (815 Terrell Mill Road);
Lassiter HS (2601 Shallowford Road);
McCleskey MS (4080 Maybreeze Road);
Sprayberry HS (2525 Sandy Plains Road);
Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church (4385 Lower Roswell Road).

The full list can be found here.

Rev. Ike Reighard of Piedmont Church, also the CEO of MUST Minstries, said that “we are grateful to have access to the food in our 29 Cobb County Schools pantries and be able to establish a base for distribution. Hungry families from throughout the county – even if their students attend a school without a pantry – will be welcomed to pick up a food box to last about two weeks.”

He said the food boxes will feed a family for two weeks, and that boxes also can be picked up Friday 10-2 at MUST locations at 1407 Cobb Parkway North in Marietta and 460 Pat Mell Road in Smyrna.

If you’re interested in volunteering for this effort, you can sign up here. If you want to donate financially to MUST, you can do so here.

The Piedmont Church (570 Piedmont Road) also is accepting food donations on Tuesdays, between 3-7 p.m.

The needs are snacks, pasta, cereal, bread, peanut butter, jelly, rice, canned vegetables, oatmeal, spaghetti sauce, water and other non-perishable foods.

The public can bring food boxes from 9-5 Tuesday-Saturday at the MUST Donation Center (1280 Cobb Parkway North), and below is a list of what’s needed the most:

MUST Food Rapid Response

A couple other things passed along by Cobb schools as part of this effort. Its non-profit partner, the Cobb Schools Foundation, is also setting up to help families in need during this period of “social distancing.” Details can be found here.

The CCSD also has set up a page called Resources for Our Families in Need.