ATLANTA — Local charities are partnering with Kroger to put food pantries in two Atlanta Public Schools.
Seth Mitchell doesn’t visit a food pantry because he wants to; it’s because he needs to.
“Times are hard, and bills are just getting higher,” he told Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen.
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Many of the clients at the MUST Ministries pantry in Marietta have hungry children.
“1 in 5 children, that’s 20% of the children you see, are food insecure and struggling with hunger,” Kroger Atlanta Division President Victor Smith said.
But help is on the way. On Wednesday, at the Kroger on Powers Ferry Road, the supermarket chain and its vendor partners presented a check for more than $300,000 to MUST and the nonprofit Caring For Others.
The money will be used to open two new pantries inside two Atlanta Public Schools: Hank Aaron Academy and South Atlanta High School.
The charities say they want to help students and their parents where they are.
“It makes life easier for them to go to the school, get a bag of food, and don’t have to worry for it,” Caring For Others CEO Eslene Richmond-Shockley said.
MUST currently operates 17 school-based pantries. Mitchell says the new pantries will help parents and grandparents better provide for their little ones.
“These types of places really help, because most of our money goes to bills. Then when it’s time to eat, what do we do?” he asked.
The new food pantries inside Hank Aaron New Beginnings Academy and South Atlanta High School will open in March.
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