One of the main reasons that we started Heirloom is our belief that some of the strongest bonds and fondest memories in a person’s life happen when gathered around food. While there are many great places to eat and shop for local food in our community, too often people here in Athens find it difficult to make ends meet and find that purchasing food must take a back seat to providing shelter and clothing for their families. With a mission of ending hunger in our part of the state, the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, provides a much needed resource for those in need in our area and in the rural areas surrounding Athens.

Often it can be difficult to arrange transportation to one of the brick and mortar pantries in  Athens or Clayton, so the Food Bank has developed a Mobile Food Pantry program, using refrigerated tractor trailers to deliver food into the communities where it is most needed. The trucks stop at community gathering places, making it easier to provide a combination of shelf stable goods, meats, vegetables, and dairy to the families that need these items most. This program serves hundreds of families each time the trucks hit the road and provide tens of thousands of meals to those that otherwise would have to struggle to get them. Most recently, the Food Bank has been focusing on Mobile School Food Pantries which reach out to families with school aged children, and also involve cooking demos to teach recipients how to make the most of the food and providing taste tests with the kids so that they can begin to understand that veggies can be delicious.

On August 25th, Heirloom will donate 15% of our sales to the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, and the funds will be earmarked to help support the School Mobile Food Pantry project. Join us for lunch or dinner, enjoy a meal surrounded by friends and loved ones, and give something back to those in need.