Food bank distributing produce, milk to Georgia families in need

Families in metro Atlanta are now getting government-subsidized food boxes as part of the USDA’s Farmers to Families program. 

The USDA is spending $3 billion nationwide through June to give families in need a 20-pound box of fresh produce as well as milk that otherwise might have gotten tossed out. 

Midwest Food Bank distributes food to food pantries all over north Georgia. As part of the program, they will be giving away 2,000 of these 20-pound boxes of fresh produce every week and 3,500 gallons of milk every single week to the churches and charities that they serve. 

Donated milk at the Midwest Food Bank in Peachtree City

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Workers were offloading those gallons of milk today at the big warehouse of the Midwest Food Bank in Peachtree City. Bordon trucked the semi load of donated milk all the way from Kentucky to Georgia as part of the program. It is milk that might have gone bad, or worse, poured out, because of national supply chain issues caused by COVID-19. Instead, the USDA has purchased the milk and is donating it to needy families. 

It's the same with the 20-pound boxes of fresh produce. Farmers are able to sell it, distributors who were idle because of the virus are boxing it up, Midwest Food Bank then will hand it out to the churches, nonprofits, and food banks in north Georgia. 

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Midwest Food Bank has scrambled to keep this amount of produce and dairy cold by bringing in refrigerator trucks at a cost of $4,500 a month with a daily fuel cost of $80 to keep them running.

If you would like to learn more about the mission of the Midwest you can visit them online at www.midwestfoodbank.org