EAL Fall 2023

she was approached to become executive
director of the Food Bank of East Alabama
in 1995. Martha felt she didn’t know anything
and asked to visit a food bank.
She was sent to the food bank in
Montgomery and was told they could teach
about pest control and food handling but
couldn’t teach her to have a heart for the
work. “That was the one thing I knew,”
Martha says. “I had a strong sense of call,
and I knew if I didn’t take the job, I would be
missing out on something I was supposed
to do. That sense of call has been wonderful
to carry me through some tough times.
“I feel that the work that I am involved
in is mission work just like the mission
work my parents did,” she adds. “Work on
the mission field is responding to a certain
need just as I am responding to a need.”
Needs at the Food Bank are increasing
this fall. The food supply is down with lingering
supply chain issues. Food drives
have not returned to pre-pandemic numbers.
Not only is the Food Bank dealing with
increased prices for food, but substantial
increased transportation costs. Everything
is more expensive.
Some of the additional support that was
available during the pandemic for families
has ended. This affects a family’s ability to
provide food.
“We are incredibly blessed to be in
the community we have,” Martha says,
“because we have had really good support
from the Tallapoosa and Lee County
commission and City of Auburn and City
of Opelika. They have supplied some of
the Covid relief money that we have been
using to purchase additional food. The City
of Auburn has also provided some of their
CARES funds for us to get a truck and fork
lift that really makes a difference.
People often ask Martha the difference
between the Food Bank and food pantries.
“The food bank’s job is to gather together
the best supply of food we can and make
that available to churches and non-profits,”
she says. “When the food comes to us, we
get it into the community. The food pantries
are the ones that actually get food to
people who need it. More than 200 agencies
are imbedded in our community who
know where the people are and how to get
food to those who need it. They are our
heroes.”
Along with food pantries, other places
supplying food include soup kitchens, shelters,
rehab programs and others. “We are
the middle person in the process,” Martha
says. “If someone contacts us or comes in
needing food, we send them to food pantries
closest to them.”
The Food Bank of East Alabama covers
seven counties. Last year nearly five million
pounds of food was distributed, and
an average of 42,450 people were provided
food assistance every month. “Each one
represents a neighbor, whether it is a senior
struggling with health issues or a child out
of school and not having access to school
lunches they are used to having.
“There are families in different kinds
of crises. Food insecurity and poverty are
not the same thing, but they always go
hand and hand. If you find poverty, you are
always going to find levels of food insecurity.
The best benefit of food banks is if we
can get food to people who need it, then
they can use their limited resources toward
paying rent or medical bills.”
Financial support allows the food bank
to purchase the kinds of food needed.
However, it doesn’t provide variety, which
makes food drives more important than
they have been before.
Martha often refers to the quote by
Desmond Tutu, “Do your little bit of good
where you are; it’s these little bits of good
put together that overwhelm the world.”
She points out the difference Kroger in
Opelika and Auburn have made by providing
Food Bank barrels for shoppers to
drop food in as they are leaving the store.
“People think they can’t make a difference
in feeding 57,000,” Martha says “but one
family can help another family by picking
up an extra jar of peanut butter to put in
the barrel, dropping it off at the Food Bank
or one of the food drives. If each one of us
does that, it has a tremendous impact.”
The Food Bank starts programs as needs
are discovered. The backpack programs
for children started because there was a
school nurse who kept seeing children on
Mondays with stomachaches and headaches.
When the nurse talked to the children,
she learned they were eating breakfast
and lunches at school, but they were
not getting enough food on weekends.
Now the food bank backpack program
is in 13 schools in elementary and primary.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well
as snacks, are tucked into backpacks on
Fridays.
The Food Bank also collects for senior
citizens’ boxes. Martha started the brown
bag meals program in 1997 when she found
a lady in Opelika eating canned cat food
92 EAST ALABAMA LIVING