By By Janet Little Cooper
As people sit down tomorrow to the traditional Thanksgiving feast, there are those among us who may not be as fortunate.
Atmore Christian Care has been working to provide food for the table of the people who need it most with a Fall Festival food drive that began the first of November.
"We are in pretty good shape right now," ACC volunteer Giles Chapman said. "It is looking good. We sent out letters to churches and businesses to promote the fall food drive. A lot of the local schools held food drives last week as well. We still have several more schools that we have to pick up food from."
ACC is a non-profit organization that began in Jan. of 2001as a means to offer assistance for people in need. An application for eligibility is required of people seeking assistance from the program. "We do not go out and hunt people to give the food to," Chapman said. "People come to us for help. We do see an increase in demand during this time of year. We have had more people come in this week for assistance with utilities and have given food to 18 people in just two days. When we first opened we had a minimum amount of food and money, but the good Lord has blessed us."
The organization operates under a board of directors and at the hands of a group of devoted volunteers.
"When the food comes in from the schools and churches, we have to separate it and stock it on the shelf's and that is a pretty good job in itself," Chapman said. "We had three young people volunteer from a church this week. They have really helped us out sorting and stocking the influx of items. Everyone here volunteers. Normally on the four days we work we have four people. We are fortunate that on most every day we have people that will rotate with each other and don't have to worry about anyone being there."
According to Chapman, the Fall Festival food drive will continue through the month of December in an effort to meet the holiday demand.
If you are interested in volunteering your time or wish to donate monetary funds or non-perishable items to the ministry, call 446-3476.
The ACC office is located behind the Post Office in downtown Atmore and is open for business Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. until noon. The office will be closed on Thursday and Friday of this week in observance of Thanksgiving Day.