A fast-moving grassroots effort attracted hundreds of local citizens and families to the old Putnam County Elementary School grounds near downtown Eatonton Saturday morning.
The building, scheduled to house a new Eatonton City Hall next year, served as the staging and distribution site for a special food drive for Putnam County residents heading into Thanksgiving weekend.
Moved to action by uncertainty surrounding the recent federal government shutdown that threatened its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP benefits, Kim Smith, a board member for the Eatonton Service League, and Peaceful Purpose Hospice owner Kim Farley joined forces to pull together in short order a food drive to feed 300 local families.
“Monday would’ve been three weeks,” Smith said. “It feels like something that would’ve been three months in the making, but no, it was quick.”
Smith said she had contacted Eatonton Fire Department Chief Jamey Williamson about using the station as a storage, sorting, and distribution center, shortly before discovering through a Facebook post that Farley was independently organizing a similar effort. So, she attended Farley’s public meeting at the Eatonton-Putnam Chamber of Commerce a couple of weeks back to compare goals.
“I just decided there are people she’s going to reach in the community that I can’t, and people the Service League could reach that she can’t,” Smith said. “So, we talked, and we both knew that together we could do even more.”
Farley said her food drive initiative began shortly after she heard that SNAP benefits were about to be temporarily interrupted by the government shutdown.
“We like to take care of our people,” she said. “I posted something in regard to a food drive, and different members of the community started reaching out to me. So, we called a group together, and we set a goal and made it happen.”
Despite the short timeline, the response from volunteers, residents, and local businesses was substantial. Organizers prepared enough food in bags, handed out at a half-dozen stations outside the school, for 300 families, including staples rarely available through the school's regular monthly food drops. Smith said the most demanding work took place well before distribution day.
“To me, this is the easy part,” she said. “The logistics of getting everything together were the hard part.”
Farley credited EFD firefighter Cooper Rainey of Rossee Oil in Eatonton for “picking up and doing whatever was asked of him,” on short notice.
Both organizers stressed the Eatonton and Milledgeville Walmart stores supplied goods at cost, and Drew Copeland of The Meat Shed on New Phoenix Road donated approximately 1,200 pounds of processed deer meat in four-pound packages.
Families also received bacon, eggs, milk, cheese, bread, potatoes, canned goods, cereal, and dry items. Food drive organizers also purchased 300 $25 vouchers to Eatonton’s Piggly Wiggly store to supplement fresh meat and produce purchases.
Volunteers represented nearly every segment of the community. Firefighters, Service League members, Peaceful Purpose staff, church groups, Georgia College students, and participants from the Ocmulgee Adult Treatment Court program were all on hand.
Also among the volunteers handing out bags of food was Putnam County District 2 Commissioner Richard Garrett and his wife, Karen. Garrett said he wanted to be present not only as an elected official but as a local resident.
“This was pure people power,” Garrett said. “I think it’s important for officials to get on the ground and not get too distant from things; it lets people know the community cares about them. But it’s also just heartening to see.”
The food drive was structured to serve Putnam County SNAP recipients first, with volunteers verifying eligibility before vehicles reached the distribution line. Farley estimated about 150 SNAP households came through initially before organizers opened remaining supplies to any county resident in need. She stressed that expanding distribution afterward was appropriate, even after the shutdown had ended, because uncertainties remained.
“We weren’t sure if everybody received a full amount [of SNAP benefits],” Farley said. “And since we had already started the initiative — and it’s the holiday season — we decided just to push through.”
Chief Williamson said the scale of donations exceeded expectations.
“It’s blown up in such a way that they didn’t expect,” he said.
Williamson recalled days of preparation at his nearby downtown fire station, where volunteers sorted, stored, and loaded goods onto trailers for transporting to the school.
“There was a lot of logistics with the trailers and the manpower, and there was tremendous cooperation from a lot of local businesses and individuals.”
As cars continued through the line as noon approached, both Smith and Farley reflected on the deeper purpose of the event.
Smith said the group’s central concern was ensuring that elderly residents were not overlooked, while Farley noted that financial strain during the holiday season made the timing even more critical.
“The whole town came together,” Smith said. “We knew that together we could do a lot more — so we did.”