Rev. Ike Reighard

MUST leader on COVID challenges: ‘Let’s not let this define us’

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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.

Cobb non-profit funding delayed
Rev. Ike Reighard

“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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Cobb non-profit funding delayed as groups explain service needs

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Lingering issues over Cobb non-profit funding have been put on hold by county commissioners, who want more time to go over proposals to spend $850,000 for grants to 15 local community service providers.

Cobb non-profit funding delayed
Rev. Ike Reighard

At last week’s commissioners meeting, they agreed to delay action, possibly to Sept. 25 when they meet again to conduct regular business.

The funding has been set aside in the fiscal year 2019 budget commissioners adopted in July, and would be distributed over the next two years.

Most of the organizations are part of the Cobb Collaborative, an umbrella organization that coordinates non-profit county grant funding.

Last year, commissioners changed the criteria for awarding grants to non-profits. The agencies must provide services related to homelessness, family stability and poverty, ex-offender re-entry and workforce development, and health and wellness.

According to Cobb deputy county manager Jackie McMorris, the Cobb Collaborative received 27 applications for grant funding, totaling $1.8 million, before making the recommendations contained in the chart below.

Several leaders of those non-profits on the recommended list spoke at Tuesday’s meeting about how they spend that money, and how it’s still needed.

Jeri Barr of the Center for Family Resources, which focuses on homelessness issues, said losing that funding “could be a death-knell for a number of non-profits.”

CFR would receive $141,339 under the current grant recommendation, the largest for any of the non-profit agencies on the list. Of that amount, $127,205 would be used directly for homeless-related programs, especially housing assistance.

“We help hundreds of families stay in their homes” with financial assistance that includes rent payments, she said, adding that that kind of stability keeps kids in schools.

Because of its Cobb grant funding, CFR also gets a federal match from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Barr said.

MUST Ministries, which is best known for operating a homeless shelter in Cobb, also provides housing and employment services for its clients.

The non-profit reported 2017 revenues of $10.6 million, and would receive $53,002 in Cobb grant funding under the proposal.

Rev. Ike Reighard, senior pastor at the Piedmont Church in East Cobb and the MUST president and CEO, told commissioners that of that $52,002, two-thirds of it, or around $35,000, goes for shelter services.

The remainder would be used for providing employment services for clients in the South Cobb area.

“You’ve been great partners to us over the years,” Reighard said.

Commissioners expressed some differences not only on how to spend the money, but whether to do it at all.

South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid was upset that other agencies weren’t included on the list that serve her community.

Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb said she’s concerned about spending taxpayer money involuntarily for such services and favors a voluntary process to fund non-profits.

Ott also has expressed similar sentiments, but his motion to table non-profit action was because he wasn’t at a work session on Monday in which the recommendations were outlined.

“It’s the first time I’m seeing this list,” he said.

Commission chairman Mike Boyce said without the services these agencies provide, the county would likely have to spend more money on incarceration and public health.

“What is the value of this county? Is this for the greater good of the county? My answer is, yes.”

The commissioners voted to table the matter right before approving a fee dispute settlement with the Atlanta Braves.

 

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